Family shocked over case of mistaken identity in hospital south of Rome.

A phone call arrived late at night: "Your father didn't make it, we are sorry."

The family accepted the terrible news and, through their grief, set about informing extended family and friends, reports Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

They also notified the funeral home which began pasting death posters around the town of Sora, in the Lazio province of Frosinone, about 100 km south-east of Rome.

However alarm bells rang the next day when the funeral agency sent the family a photograph of their loved one laid out in his coffin, reports FrosinoneToday.

Although the family had not been able to visit him during his time at the SS. Trinità hospital, due to the covid-19 restrictions, the man's appearance could not have changed so much in a few days.

The family's doubts were confirmed when it was proven that the deceased did not have any trace of an identifying scar.

The wife and adult children of the elderly man then made urgent enquiries and were soon notified that their loved one was in fact alive, eating breakfast in the hospital ward.