Self-resurrecting followers?

I picked up a Mage's Apprentice for giggles and she got torn apart in Oblivion while I was bhopping and touch-spelling everything that moves. Her corpse got dropped in the mud when I shut the gate and I hydroplaned off to continue my rampage. I just shut another gate and she ran up to a Xivilai that had spawned outside and got beat up by his summon. Is respawning followers with oblivion gates a known issue? I did hit her with the Staff of Worms to say bye between her dying and me closing the first gate, but I waited until she timed out to close the gate, in case that is relevant to recreating the bug.