Melbourne woman declared dead by mistake after blunder left family grieving while she made pizzas

A Melbourne woman was mistakenly declared dead after a police and hospital identity mix-up led officers to wrongly tell her family she had died.

Michelle Buckley, 54, was incorrectly identified as deceased after police mistook the body of another woman for hers. 

The other woman was homeless and had been living rough in Melbourne's Tarneit area for four years. She was carrying Buckley’s personal ID and hospital files when she was found.

While police were mistakenly identifying her as dead, Ms Buckley was making pizzas. The first sign something was wrong came when her partner received a message from her family. 

'He said: "Oh my God. You're never going to believe what it says,"' Ms Buckley told ABC News.

'He brought his computer over, and there was a message from my brother's girlfriend saying, "I'm really sorry to hear that Michelle's passed away."'

'I just felt like time stood still. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.'

Moments later, she got a phone call from her family.

'I could hear them crying, my poor older aunty and my cousins, everybody had been notified,' Ms Buckley said.

'I can't tell you what it's like. It's so surreal to be told that you're dead.'

It wasn't the end of the nightmare. 

Ms Buckley later realised the dead woman's entire medical history had been merged into her My Health Record. 

For months before the error was discovered, her health record included the other woman's hospital appointments and medical test results. 

Slater and Gordon lawyer Kieren McKenzie, who is representing Ms Buckley, described the blunder as unprecedented.

'I've never seen something like this,' McKenzie said.

'It has raised some questions for us as to how her medical details, sensitive information, and her intimate documents have been handled.'

A Mercy Health spokesperson apologised for the 'mistaken identification'.

'We are deeply sorry to the patients and family involved and to everyone affected. Every patient has the right to expect that their identity and health information are managed safely and accurately,' the spokesperson said.

'We are undertaking a thorough review to understand how this occurred and to identify any improvements needed to strengthen our patient identification processes and ensure that it does not occur again.'

Victoria Police has since apologised to Ms Buckley for the distress caused.