Man Declared Dead Found Alive At His Own Funeral

Typically, when you’re dead, you’re dead. Ghosts and zombies are (as far as we know) the reserve of horror films and nightmares. Cryonics is still but a science fiction fantasy.

But one man in India did, seemingly, come back to life – at his own funeral.

The 20-year-old man was declared deceased by medics on Monday after arriving at the hospital unconscious following an accident on June 21. He was sent home in an ambulance to be buried by waiting friends and family. Only, when his body was taken out of the ambulance, his body showed signs of breathing and of movement – signs that he was alive.

If we want to be technical about it, Mohammad Furqan was never really dead in the first place. Still, for his mourners, it must have felt like a miracle.

But this story then takes a sinister turn. Mohd Irfan, Furqan’s older brother, told reporters Furquan had been placed on a ventilator after the accident and was receiving treatment at a private hospital. Then, when the family told medics they had no more money to pay for Furqan’s medical bills, they told his relatives he had died.

“The hospital put him on a ventilator and started charging us huge fees,” Mohd Irfan told reporters.

“[W]hen we informed the hospital that we had run out of money, they declared Furqan dead.

“When we took the body home, a family member noticed that he was breathing. Others standing there also saw limb movement. We rushed him to RML hospital immediately where doctors put him on oxygen support,” he continued.

As of Tuesday, Furqan is receiving hospital care though he remains in a critical condition.

“The patient is in critical condition but definitely not brain dead,” Ashok Nirala, the doctor treating Furqan, told reporters.

“He has a pulse, blood pressure and his reflexes are working. He has been put on ventilator support.”

Meanwhile, the incident – and failure of doctors in the first instance – is being investigated, Narendra Agarwal, the chief medical officer of Lucknow, has said.

Believe it or not, this is not the first time someone has lived through their funeral.

Take Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, a 49-year-old Russian woman who had – apparently – died of a heart attack in 2011, for example. She awoke at her own funeral, screaming. (A small piece of solace: it was an open coffin.) Sadly, she died a short time later after just 12 minutes in intensive care.

Other seemingly-dead people have “resurrected” at the morgue, at the hospital (while awaiting autopsy), and at the morgue (again).

While, for obvious reasons, these stories attract a lot of press attention, it is worth pointing out that such instances are extremely rare – especially with modern technology and healthcare practices.

[H/T: The Times of India]