A 52-year-old woman who was presumed dead by her family woke up in a hearse on the way to her cremation in India.
Bujji Aamma, from Berhampur, India, suffered severe burns in a fire at her home on February 1. She was taken to a hospital with burns covering half of her body but returned home after a few days due to financial constraints.
Her husband, Sibaram Palo, said she did not open her eyes for several days, and he assumed she had died. He arranged for a hearse to take her body to the cremation ground without obtaining a death certificate.
However, on the way to the cremation, Aamma opened her eyes and moved her limbs, shocking the hearse driver and the people accompanying her. A woman named K Chiranjibi, who witnessed the incident, said: “Initially, we were scared as we had never seen such an incident, though we had heard some stories.”
The hearse driver was called back to collect Aamma, who was still alive, and take her home in the same vehicle. She is currently receiving treatment at her residence.
This is not the first time that a person has been mistakenly declared dead in India. In 2019, a 20-year-old man woke up just before his burial in Lucknow after being pronounced dead by a doctor. In 2017, a 72-year-old man woke up on an autopsy table in Mumbai after being declared dead by a hospital.
