Rohitash, 45, is said to have shocked onlookers when he began breathing as he was about to be burned on a crematorium pyre in Jhunjhunu City in Rajasthan state, India
India: Man ‘comes back from the dead’ in morgue
Footage has captured the remarkable moment a man in a morgue comes back from the dead just minutes before he was due to be cremated.
Rohitash, 45, is said to have shocked onlookers when he began breathing as he was about to be burned on a crematorium pyre in Jhunjhunu City in Rajasthan state, India, on November 21. Footage shows the live but seemingly catatonic man wrapped in a blanket surrounded by stunned onlookers.
An ambulance was summoned to take him to the Rajkiya Bhagwan Das Khetan (BDK) Hospital. Officials explained the mistake to local media by claiming that bungling medics had simply skipped the post-mortem examination which would have confirmed the patient was deceased.
Jhunjhunu Police Superintendent Sharad Chouodhary said: “The man did not have any relatives present when he initially arrived at the hospital. His condition worsened and there were no signs of life.
“The doctors were supposed to do a post-mortem examination but they did not do anything. They just fulfilled the paper formalities and sent the man for cremation. When the body was placed on the pyre, he woke up.”
Officials said the patient, a mute and deaf orphan staying at a local shelter, had fallen critically ill on November 20. He was taken to the BDK Hospital, but doctors declared him dead after his condition kept deteriorating.
He was reportedly kept for several hours in a cold mortuary before the funeral rites. Once he was taken outside, he began breathing and opened his eyes before being rushed back to hospital for urgent treatment. Police said the principal medical officer and three doctors involved in the case have been suspended over the alleged negligence.
Local media reported that Rohitash died early November 22 morning while undergoing emergency treatment in the ICU of BDK Hospital. The shocking story comes just months after a baby girl was rushed to hospital from her own funeral after horrified mourners noticed she was moving her hand in the coffin.
Eight-month-old Kiara Crislayne de Moura dos Santos was declared dead by medics in the early hours of October 19. Just two hours later, funeral director Aureo Arruda Ramos collected her body from the Faustino Riscarolli Hospital Foundation in Correia Pinto, in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Then, with Kiara’s parents, he began making preparations for the little girl’s funeral later that day, according to local media. After her parents brought a set of clothes for the baby to wear in her coffin, the service began at 7pm, just 16 hours after Kiara had been declared dead.
But horrified mourners stopped the service when they noticed the baby’s hand was moving. And according to reports, when one of them touched her fingers, the baby gripped them tightly. A nearby pharmacist found she was still breathing and called the emergency services.
But tragically, by the time Kiara was taken back to hospital, her heart had stopped and she was declared dead again, according to local media. Her heartbroken dad Cristiano Santos said: “We were devastated already. Then there came a little bit of hope, but then this ended up happening.”