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Dead—Not Dead! (Mistaken Reports & Declarations Of Death)

Ohio man remains legally dead despite his recent court plea
http://rt.com/usa/ohio-man-legally-dead-916/
Published time: October 09, 2013 02:36
Edited time: October 09, 2013 04:48 Get short URL
Reuters / Jason Reed JIR / CNReuters

Consider northwest Ohio man Donald Eugene Miller Jr. the walking dead - as he has been since 1994.

Miller was ruled legally dead by a court in 1994, eight years after he disappeared from his home in Arcadia. His appeal Monday in Hancock County Probate Court to rescind his “death” didn’t earn a change of status in the view of the law.

Judge Allan Davis, the same judge who ruled him dead nearly 20 years ago, said Monday nothing will change for Miller, who was informed of his status by his parents upon his return in 2005.

Miller’s request for a reversal did not fall within the three-year legal limit for challenging a death ruling, Davis said, according to The Courier.

"We've got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health," Davis said.

Miller fled the state to avoid paying child support, the judge said in court.

"I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still deceased as far as the law is concerned," Davis said.

One can be legally declared dead in absentia despite the absence of solid proof of one’s death - for instance, the existence of remains that can be attributed to the person - often after a certain period of time determined by jurisdictional law.

Miller withheld most details of his past in court Monday, saying he was an alcoholic and unsure of what to do once he lost his job.

"My paycheck was being taken away from me and I had nothing left," he said.

He worked in various places in Atlanta and Florida after leaving Hancock County in late 1989.

"It kind of went further than I ever expected it to," Miller, 61, said. "I just kind of took off, ended up in different places," he said.

He asked the court to reverse the death ruling so he can begin to receive Social Security benefits and apply for a driver’s license again. Both were canceled upon the 1994 ruling.

Miller, now of Fostoria, may have more luck with the Social Security Administration in federal court, though his lawyer said Miller does not have the resources to pursue such a challenge.

"My client's here on a wing and a prayer today," attorney Francis Marley said.

Miller never contacted his two children upon leaving Ohio, he told the court.

His ex-wife, Robin Miller, said she asked for the death ruling to get his Social Security benefits for the sake of his children. She refused to testify in the case.

He owed around $26,000 in overdue child support once the death ruling was made, she said.

Though she sympathized with him, she said she opposed his request for reversal given she does not have the money to pay his benefits back.
 
That really is preposterous on so many levels.

Including the fact that she'd be required to pay back $26k even if she had originally acted in good faith and so had the court that originally made the decision.

:?
 
'Dead' China baby is found alive
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A baby pronounced dead has been found alive in a funeral home in China.
21 NOVEMBER 2013
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/de ... 73366.html

A funeral home discovered a baby was alive two days after he was pronounced dead at a hospital in eastern China.

Authorities revoked the licence of the doctor who mistakenly declared the newborn boy dead, the health department in Anhui province said.

It said funeral home workers found the boy to be alive on Wednesday, two days after he was pronounced dead at a provincial Children's Hospital.

The department said the boy has severe deformities and the hospital treated him until Monday, when his condition deteriorated.

Authorities have ruled that the doctor - identified only by the surname Cha - was negligent and that hospital's newborn unit was chaotic.

The boy remains in critical condition.

AP
 
Man returns home to find parents laying flowers at his grave

A son returned to his home town and greeted his parents… as they laid flowers on his grave.

Jaroslaw Carolinski, from Siedliska, Poland, had been declared dead after his mother and father mistook a body found by police in a forest near the Ukranian border for his.

The 38-year-old left without warning in October 2011 to ‘find himself’ and his parents were certain their missing son was gone forever.

But he finally returned home last week and on seeing his upset parents standing over his grave, declared: ‘Hello mum and dad. I’m back.’

His mother reportedly fainted when she saw him, with Mr Carolinski saying the whole incident had been surreal.

‘Of course they [his parents] were both shocked and delighted to see me,’ he added.

The prosecutor’s office is now working to determine who is actually buried in the grave.
http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/26/man-retur ... e-4202069/
 
Kenyan 'corpse' wakes up in Naivasha morgue
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25681048

The patient in Naivasha District Hospital who spent time in morgue after being declared dead although still alive - Thursday 9 January 2014

Paul Mutora was visited by relatives after being rescued from the morgue

Kenyan authorities have launched an investigation into how a man declared dead in a hospital woke up alive in its morgue the next day.

Shocked mortuary workers at Naivasha hospital ran away when the body stirred and was seen to be breathing.

Paul Mutora, who had tried to kill himself by swallowing insecticide, was pronounced dead on Wednesday night.

The chief medic said the drug used to treat him slowed the heart beat, which may have led to the mistake.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

The mortuary attendant and a worker took to their heels screaming”

Witness
"This might have confused medical personnel, but the victim was saved before he could be embalmed," Dr Joseph Mburu, the superintendent in charge of Naivasha District Hospital, was quoted by Kenya's Standard newspaper as saying.

According to the paper, Mr Mutora's father and other relatives visited the morgue on Thursday morning to view the body and then returned home to start funeral arrangements.

"But in the afternoon we were informed, he was alive and were left in shock," the father said.

A witness told the Star newspaper that when noises were heard inside the cold room: "The mortuary attendant and a worker took to their heels screaming."

Journalists photographed Mr Mutora later recovering on a male ward in the hospital in the lakeside town, 90km (55 miles) north-west of the capital, Nairobi,

"This was a mistake from the start and I apologise to my father," the patient said.
 
Death rumour 'cost vintage car specialist thousands'

A vintage car specialist who returned from holiday to find people thought he was dead has said the rumour has cost him thousands in lost business.
Well-wishers paid moving tributes to Lloyd Bryan on an online forum after reading that he had supposedly died of a heart attack.

Mr Bryan, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said he had no idea who started the hoax.
The 74-year-old said the falsehood was costing him about £2,000 a week.
Neither Mr Bryan or his wife Julie, who returned from holiday in the Caribbean in December, use the internet.
"A lot of the traders saw me and said 'oh, he's alive' and kept coming up and pinching me," he said.
"Quite a few of my customers rang up to find out if it was true.
"It's costing me about £2,000 a week."

He said if he could speak to his customers, his message would be: "Come back, I'm alive."
Mrs Bryan said: "It was a shock at first.
"I was just glad that when we heard about it, I knew that we were on holiday together."

Social media author David Taylor said: "Unfortunately it's all to[o] common these days, with the likes of Facebook, Twitter online forums and all the social networks.
"That means that people can put a lot of information online.
"A lot of it can be completely made up - lies or malicious falsehoods or whatever.
"Unfortunately, if people see it online, they believe it."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-26249001
 
Hmph, it's getting so that we'll all need some kind of 'dead man's switch' attached to social media.
 
A close one.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ter-man-wakes-up-in-funeral-home-9161070.html

Alive and kicking: Body bag starts moving after man wakes up in funeral home

Workers were about to embalm 78-year-old former farmer

Independent. Rose Troup Buchanan. 28 February 2014


Workers at a US funeral home were treated to a shock after a body they were preparing to embalm suddenly woke up kicking.

Despite being examined by Mississippi county coroner Dexter Howard, 78-year-old Walter Williams came back to life hours after he had been officially pronounced dead.

Staff at the Porter and Sons Funeral Home rushed Mr Williams, a former farmer and school worker, to hospital after they realised the mistake.

The manager of Porter and Sons Byron Porter said: “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Speaking to TV channel WAPTV coroner Howard confirmed he had checked Mr Williams pulse and found no heartbeat, declaring him dead at 10.30pm on Wednesday.

He said the experience was a miracle, although he did suggest Mr William’s pacemaker may have turned off causing it to appear as if he no longer had a pulse.

Mr William’s nephew Eddie Hester watched his uncle get put into the body bag, zipped up and taken away.

He said the entire family were happy to have Mr Williams back.

“I don’t know how long he’s going to be here, but I know he’s back right now. That’s all that counts,” Mr Hester added.
 
Is he really dead this time?

'Long dead' Mexico drug lord Nazario Moreno killed
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26510643

Police guard the morgue where Nazario Moreno's body is held, Apatzingan, Michoacan state, Mexico (10 March 2014)

Security is high around the morgue where the body is being held

Officials in Mexico say that they have killed a drug lord who was reported to have been shot dead three years ago.

Nazario Moreno, known as El Mas Loco - The Craziest One - was the founder of the La Familia cartel and regarded as the spiritual leader of its offshoot, the brutal Knights Templar.

His death was first announced after a 2010 shootout, but no body was found and he was reportedly seen alive since.

Police said he was finally tracked down and shot dead in Michoacan state.

"From a fingerprint analysis we have confirmed 100% that this was Nazario Moreno Gonzalez," said Tomas Zeron, the head of investigations at the federal prosecutor's office.

'Dangerous person'
Government security spokesman Alejandro Rubido said security officials had been tracking Moreno for some time.


Mexican authorities, speaking in 2010, said Nazario Moreno died in clashes
"Anonymous tips indicated that Nazario Moreno was not only living, but continued operating at the head of a criminal group conducting extortion, kidnapping and other crimes," he said at a news briefing in Mexico City.

"This person was known as dangerous," he said, with police believing he had committed multiple murders since his reported death.

Police image of fingerprints of Nazario Moreno
Police used fingerprints to confirm the identity of the dead body

Mr Rubido said Moreno was stopped by police on Sunday morning in the village of Tumbiscatio in Michoacan state.

"When he was asked to turn himself in, he opened fire and was killed," he said.

Moreno, 43, was the founder of the La Familia cartel, which dominated the drugs trade in Michoacan but was believed to have been severely weakened by his reported death.

Its breakaway group, the Knights Templar - know for its brutality and its use of religious imagery - subsequently took over many of the cartel's operations and runs much of the methamphetamine production and trafficking in the west of Mexico.

The BBC's Mexico correspondent Will Grant says Moreno's killing is a second major success for the government's campaign against the drugs trade within a month.

In late February, Joaquin Guzman, known as El Chapo or "Shorty" was arrested in Sinaloa state.

His Sinaloa cartel is believed to be one of the biggest criminal organisations in the world, trafficking drugs into more than 50 countries worldwide.

He was one of Mexico's most-wanted men and had been on the run since escaping a high-security prison in a laundry basket in 2001.

Some 60,000 people have died across Mexico since 2006 when the previous government under Felipe Calderon deployed the military against the drugs gangs.

Knights Templar drug cartel

First emerged in 2011 as an offshoot of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel
Takes its name from a Christian military order from the Middle Ages
Claims to protect Michoacan residents from kidnappings, extortion and robberies committed by rival gangs
Controls much of the methamphetamine and marijuana trade in western Mexico

Q&A: Mexico's drug-related violence
 
I present this for information only. Personally, I'm suspicious of the Christian background, and a book written by the (in debt) father that got made into a film, etc...

An interesting tale, but it probably says more about American fundamentalists than life after death.


The little boy who says he went to Heaven - then came back! How four-year-old's startlingly vivid account of meeting God has gripped America and become a Hollywood film
By Tom Leonard
Published: 01:41, 8 May 2014 | Updated: 08:14, 8 May 2014

Four months after Colton Burpo miraculously survived a life-threatening burst appendix, his parents began to suspect that something rather extraordinary had happened to him.
There were signs of change in their son not long after the operation, but it took a while for them to understand the ‘truth’.

The first unusual occurrence was when Todd and Sonja returned from the hospital to their home in Nebraska in March 2003 to find a pile of bills
They baulked at the £14,000 bill from the hospital that had saved the life of their then four-year-old son. But Colton told them they had to pay the surgeon — as Jesus had, ‘used him to help fix me’.

When they later told him off for not sharing his toys with other children, he apologised immediately.
Not because of their intervention, but because, ‘Jesus told me I had to be nice,’ he explained.

Weeks later, when Todd — a Methodist minister — was about to officiate at a funeral, Colton pointed at the coffin and shouted: ‘He can’t get into Heaven if he didn’t have Jesus in his heart!’
His parents were both committed Christians and wanted their children to believe, too. But how, they wondered, did Colton know so much about God and what He wanted?

Then their son told them what he experienced on the operating table.
While the surgeons had battled to save him and his parents prayed fervently, Colton had gone to Heaven and met Jesus.
Colton’s extraordinary claims — and the response of his family and those in their local town — have been made into a blockbuster Hollywood film which is now to be shown in British cinemas.
Starring Greg Kinnear and British actress Kelly Reilly as Mr and Mrs Burpo, Heaven Is For Real has already stormed the U.S. box office, taking £31 million in two weeks.

The film and the best-selling book it’s based on have captivated the U.S., inspiring churchgoers and non-believers alike with a simple but comforting tale of a little boy who discovers there is an afterlife and that Heaven really is the eternal paradise of Christian belief.

The book — written by Todd Burpo — has been phenomenally successful since it was published in 2010. It has sold ten million copies and been translated into 39 languages. It spent more than 60 weeks as the No. 1 non-fiction paperback on the New York Times bestseller list.

The success of the book and the film are in large part due to Colton’s claims that he didn’t just snatch a glimpse of Heaven through the clouds, but experienced paradise in glorious detail.

etc...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... pital.html

(Burpo is an interesting name, but it's never appeared on FTMB until now!)
 
We'll never know.

My understanding of religion is that God wants our faith(and for us to be kind to one another), so proof positive of Heaven would be against the plan.

The afterlife may be a load of dung....or maybe not. I know that I'm comforted by the thought that I'll see my lost ones again, in a better place.

If I'm wrong, I've lost nothing. If I'm right, I'll find Paradise.

Omar councilled us to take the cash and let the credit go. But that's not wise business.

(one man returned from clinical death reported he had gone to Hell-he was a really bad egg-after which he chose a better life. He reports being happier.)
 
'Dead' Girl, 3, Wakes Up At Her Own Funeral

A three-year-old girl pronounced dead after a fever has apparently woken up at her own funeral in the Philippines.

The girl was declared clinically dead by medical personnel in Zamboanga del Sur, Mindanao, on Friday.

But during the funeral service on Saturday she apparently began moving her head before her family took her out of her coffin.

Senior Inspector Heidil Teelan, police chief in Aurora, told The Philippine Star the girl had been suffering from a severe fever when she was taken to a medical clinic.

He told the newspaper: "During that time, the attending clinic personnel and physician confirmed that the young patient had no more pulse and was clinically dead last Saturday morning about 9am."

He added that after the little girl reportedly moved her head, family members discovered she had a pulse and immediately gave her water before going for medical help.

The condition of the girl was unknown.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/dead-girl-3-w ... ml#HmlQhtF
 
Has anyone noticed that these cases seem to cluster in places with really bad doctors?

Greece is infamous for poor quality health care(there may be exceptions)and there are a lot of these cases there.

The terrible poverty of the Phillipines likewise.

Death is difficult to diagnose-it's accepted that the only true proof of death is decomposition. The true purpose of embalming is to insure death.

Gilgamesh sat by his friend Enkidu until a maggot fell from his nose-then he was sure he was truly dead.

Zombie legends may be rooted in fact.
 
'Dead' Brazilian Starts Moving In Body Bag, Revealing He's Very Much Alive

Valdelucio Goncalves gives the thumbs up after he was declared dead by doctors in Salvador, Brazil.

Valdelucio Goncalves may have died from a heart attack, but it's his brother who will likely need a heart checkup after finding his supposedly deceased sibling alive in a body bag.

Doctors declared Goncalves, 54, dead in Salvador, Brazil after "respiratory and multiple organ failure," the Daily Mail reported this week. His family was notified and made arrangements for the funeral later that day.

Goncalves' brother, Walterio, was let into the morgue to dress the body when he noticed something weird.

"As I got closer I could see it wriggling. Then I saw it raising and falling as if he was breathing," he told the Mirror. "I went crazy and shouted for the medical team, the nurse, so they could see what was happening. They checked him and confirmed that he was still alive."

The staff had to rush to free him; his body had been tied up and his nose and ears were filled with cotton wool, according to the BBC.

The Menandro de Farias Hospital, whose doctors declared Goncalves dead, has launched an investigation.

His niece, Patricia Cintra, told local newspaper Correio 24 Horas that the family was not only mortified -- they'd paid for everything.

"We had even bought a coffin and paid a deposit for the funeral," she said.

Still, she said her prayers had been answered when she found out her uncle was alive. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer three months before the heart attacks. ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/2 ... 16283.html
 
They should keep the coffin, they'll need it someday.

Likewise, the funeral-paid for, just postponed.

Let's hope this man enjoys the extra time he has been granted.
 
krakenten said:
They should keep the coffin, they'll need it someday.

Likewise, the funeral-paid for, just postponed.

Let's hope this man enjoys the extra time he has been granted.

Think of the problems he will have convincing the Social Security Administration that hes still alive.
 
Polish woman wakes in morgue after being declared dead

A 91-year-old Polish woman who spent 11 hours in cold storage in a morgue after being declared dead has returned to her family, complaining of feeling cold.
Officials say Janina Kolkiewicz was declared dead after an examination by the family doctor.

However, morgue staff were astonished to notice movement in her body bag while it was in storage. The police have launched an investigation.
Back home, Ms Kolkiewicz warmed up with a bowl of soup and two pancakes.

Her family and doctor said they were in shock, according to the website of the Polish newspaper, Dziennik Wschodni.
The woman's niece, in the eastern Polish town of Ostrow Lubelski, summoned the doctor after coming home one morning to find that her aunt did not seem to be breathing or to have a pulse.

After examining the woman, the family doctor declared her dead and wrote out her death certificate.
The body was taken to the morgue and preparations were made for a funeral in two days' time.
"I was sure she was dead," Dr Wieslawa Czyz told the television channel TVP.
"I'm stunned, I don't understand what happened. Her heart had stopped beating, she was no longer breathing," Dr Czyz said.

However, the morgue staff called some hours later to report that the woman was not yet dead, her niece told Dziennik Wschodni.
The death certificate has been declared invalid, the newspaper says.
Ms Kolkiewicz told her relatives she felt "normal, fine" after returning home.

She is apparently unaware of how near she came to the grave.
"My aunt has no inkling of what happened since she has late-stage dementia," Bogumila Kolkiewicz, her niece, told local media.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30048087
 
Dale Hopfinger ran into a problem while trying to vote in Michigan: he was told he was dead.

An election worker even told him that local records listed the date of his demise as September 25.

After some persuasion, Hopfinger says officials finally allowed him to cast a ballot last week in Lee Township.

Hopfinger told WNEM-TV he’s been working to figure out what happened, and that the Social Security Administration told him it was likely a clerical error.

The 48-year-old said he plans to visit a Social Security office in Bay City on Friday to try to settle the issue.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/quir ... 98250.html
 
How a farewell cuddle revived a dying baby
Infant boy born 14 weeks prematurely brought to life by 'skin to skin' contact with parents
By Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent
5:25PM GMT 13 Mar 2015

A couple who had been told by doctors that their baby had died during birth brought him back to life again after giving his body a farewell cuddle.

Kate and David Ogg were devastated when maternity ward staff informed them that one of their two twins had stopped breathing after being born 14 weeks premature. Told that he had just a few moments left with a beating heart, they gathered his warm body in their arms for a tender embrace. Mrs Ogg ordered her husband to clamber into the bed and take off his shirt so that the infant could have extra warmth.

To their astonishment, the child suddenly began to move, his breath getting stronger rather than ebbing away. Hospital staff then leapt into action and nursed him into a full recovery. :)

His remarkable tale of survival took place in 2010, but has only just been revealed by his parents, who live in Queensland, Australia. The boy, named Jamie, is now a healthy, bouncy five-year-old, whose siblings joke that he used to be dead, but is now alive.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...w-a-farewell-cuddle-revived-a-dying-baby.html
 
For most who have died and come back, they say the same things. One of them is that "Those who are meant to go, will go. And those who are meant to stay, will stay. There is no in between." Life appears to throw us a curve ball every once in a while.
 
A grieving husband who believed he had buried his wife after she was killed in a road accident was shocked when she popped up on a popular TV programme.

Abragh Mohamed held a funeral for his beloved wife after she was thought to have been killed in a crash.

He was told by doctors in a Casablanca hospital that the woman, who hasn't been named, had passed away from her "serious" injuries.

But she turned up on a TV programme designed to reconnect loved ones who have lost contact over the years.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/husbands-shock-dead-wife-turns-7530861
 
These "false" burials always beg the question, who was it who was actually buried and why weren't they missed? It's like that film Millennium where pretend dead bodies are placed in aeroplane crashes so the potential victims can be saved. But less elaborate.
 
'Miracle' as girl declared dead in Michigan Uber murders walks out of hospital
Abigail Kopf, a 14-year-old who was declared dead after being shot in the head by the Michigan 'Uber murderer' last month stuns doctors by walking out of hospital
By Barney Henderson, New York
8:37AM GMT 11 Mar 2016

A teenage girl who was declared dead after being shot in the head by the man charged with carrying out a spate of murders in Michigan last month has miraculously walked out of hospital.
Abigail Kopf was shot through the right-hand side of her head on the evening of February 20 as she made her way home from a musical with a close family friend described as her honorary grandmother.

Jason Dalton has admitted shooting six randomly chosen victims in and around the city of Kalamazoo – attacks apparently carried out over hours during which he ferried passengers around the city as an Uber driver.

Abigail's heart stopped and despite the frantic efforts of several doctors and medical professionals, she was declared dead at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo later that night.
Her parents, Vickie and Gene Kopf, were allowed into the operating room to say goodbye to their daughter.
It was a scene that "no horror movie will ever match," Mr Kopf told the Battle Creek Enquirer, while Mrs Kopf said: "It's an image no human being will ever get out of their head.
"And every night, when I close my eyes, that's the image I see. And I don't know if it will ever fade."

However, as Mrs Kopf lay her head on what she thought was her dead child's still chest, she detected a sign of life – a breath or a feint heartbeat.
"I felt that she was still there, even though they kept telling me she wasn't," she explained.
The doctors rushed back in and Abigail was placed on a ventilator.
Mr and Mrs Kopf were warned that she could be brain-dead and Mrs Kopf asked staff what the procedure was for donating her daughter's organs if necessary.

But, hours later, as the parents sat with their daughter still fearing the worst, Mrs Kopf held Abigail's hand and felt her squeeze back.
The doctors again advised caution, stating that it could be a twitch that can happen as patients fade away.
Abigail kept squeezing, though, and, when Mrs Kopf asked her if she could hear her, the girl entwined her fingers with her mother's.
She underwent emergency brain surgery that night, which was successful, and so began the path to recovery.

Abigail opened her eyes for the first time last week and was released from hospital and taken to a rehabilitation centre on Wednesday.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...higan-Uber-murders-walks-out-of-hospital.html
 
A grieving husband who believed he had buried his wife after she was killed in a road accident was shocked when she popped up on a popular TV programme.

Abragh Mohamed held a funeral for his beloved wife after she was thought to have been killed in a crash.

He was told by doctors in a Casablanca hospital that the woman, who hasn't been named, had passed away from her "serious" injuries.

But she turned up on a TV programme designed to reconnect loved ones who have lost contact over the years.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/husbands-shock-dead-wife-turns-7530861
Everybody Comes to Rick's
 
The World War One soldiers who came back from the dead

Households in World War One would await the telegraph boy's knock with a cold fear. Worlds were ripped apart with a few brief words announcing a serviceman's death, with follow-up letters from commanding officers rarely filling in enough of the blanks. But some families went through needless heartbreak. Sons, brothers and fathers were reported dead when they were very much alive.

One of those was Pte Fred Joslin, who was 19 when he was "killed" in machine gun fire. His mother heard from the War Office and there had already been a church service in his memory when he wrote home from a hospital in Malta.

How did these mix-ups happen?
Sometimes comrades genuinely thought a fellow soldier was dead when in fact he was injured. This is what happened to Pte Joslin - who eventually lived to the age of 95.

In his memoirs he said:

"I was hit by a burst of machine gun fire and thrown very forcibly to the ground where I lay on my stomach. The blood from my wounds in the back and shoulder ran around my ears.
"It appeared to those seeing me that the blood was coming from my ears and experience had proved that wounded soldiers bleeding from the ears had little chance of survival."

He was paralysed - and the next day a lost British major heard him shouting and rescued him.

His mother was "shell-shocked" by receiving a letter apparently from her dead son - and since the handwriting was that of a nurse Fred had dictated his words to, rather than in his own script, even the War Office wouldn't accept Pte Joslin was alive.

There were also cases of mistaken identity, says historian David Bilton, who wrote about the subject in Reading in the Great War 1914-1916 and Vol II, 1917-1919.
"Soldiers used to exchange items with their best friends when they were going over the top as good luck charms. They would wear one another's identity bracelet, or give each other their last letter home.
"Survivors who recovered bodies from the battleground would look for property on the body to identify them.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36725501
 
How a donated watch revealed the survival of ship's cook feared killed in WWII sinking of SS Athenia
Patrick Sawer, Senior Reporter
19 January 2017 • 2:59pm

Fearing the end was near Sidney Worrall knew there was one last thing he had to do.
His ship the SS Athenia had just been fatally damaged by the enemy - becoming the first British vessel to be sunk by the Germans at the outbreak of World War Two - and Mr Worrall had suffered horrendous burns when oil exploded in the galleys.
With what he thought was his last breath the Scottish ship’s cook handed over his most prized possession - his watch - to a fellow lifeboat passenger, urging him to look after it as long as he lived.

Gerry Hutchinson, a Canadian passenger who had helped Mr Worrall into the lifeboat, fulfilled his dying wish, holding on to the watch and keeping it in immaculate condition until his own death last year.

But only now has it emerged that, despite his wounds, Mr Worrall in fact survived the sinking of the SS Athenia.
The discovery was made following an appeal by Glasgow’s Riverside Museum for more information about the watch’s original owner.
The appeal was seen by members of Mr Worrall’s family, who have now came forward to reveal that, far from being killed at sea, he had gone on to live a full and active life before dying in 1973. :)

The SS Athenia, a Glasgow-built transatlantic passenger liner sailing between the UK and Canada, was sunk off the coast of Galway, Ireland, by a torpedo from a German submarine on the day that war was declared on September 3, 1939.
The attack killed 117 people and left mental and physical scars on those who, like Mr Worrall and Mr Hutchinson, were lucky enough to survive.

Following the death of Mr Hutchinson, who had gone on to become a church minister, his son Rob - aware of Mr Worrall’s poignant gesture years earlier - decided to return the watch to the SS Athenia's home town and donated it to the Riverside Museum.

In response to the appeal by museum curator Emily Malcolm, family members revealed that Mr Worrall had not only survived the attack on the SS Athenia but, after being pensioned out of the Merchant Navy due to his injuries, volunteered to return to sea as part of the war effort.
At the conflict’s end he worked as a hospital porter at Law Hospital, Lanarkshire, married and went on to have a daughter - but he never told his family about the watch he had left in the hands of a stranger.

Among those to come forward in response to the museum's appeal were his granddaughter Cath Muir, who said:"I remember him as a child. He was very badly burned when the Athenia was attacked and had many skin grafts on his face and legs. He told us that they were his maps of the world.”

Mrs Muir, Newarthill, North Lanarkshire, added: “After returning from Galway he was pensioned out of the Merchant Navy due to the injuries he sustained, but he returned to sea to serve in the war, he felt it was his duty to do so, but that meant he had to forgo part of his pension.”

In a further happy twist several members of Mr Worrall’s extended family came to know each other for the first time as a result of answering the museum’s appeal, including Dr Ernie Worrall, a nephew.
He told how his father had told him how Mr Worrall’s mother had not known whether the cook was alive or dead until she saw newsreel reports of his survival and rescue.

Dr Worrall, 74, said: "A day or so after the sinking, my grandmother's neighbour saw on the Pathe newsreel that night my uncle being landed as a survivor in Galway. At the end of the picture show she told my grandmother, who at that point would have been unaware whether her son had been killed or had been rescued.
"My grandmother hot-footed it down to the cinema, just as the manager was closing up for the night, and he kindly opened up and re-ran the newsreel for her while she sat in this empty cinema and was able to be reassured that he was indeed alive." :D

The watch will go on display as part of an updated SS Athenia exhibition at the Riverside this summer.
Gerry Hutchinson’s son Rob said: "I am delighted that the museum has been able to draw together the two ends of this very long story.
“I look forward to one day seeing the museum's display and possibly meeting Sid's family. My father would have been so pleased."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ealed-survival-ships-cook-feared-killed-wwii/

A remarkable tale! :)
 
Here's a case where the allegedly deceased had the good fortune to start snoring just before they were to undertake his autopsy ... :evillaugh:

Man Declared Dead Snores to Life Right Before His Autopsy
A man in Spain who was declared dead by three doctors was actually still alive, which doctors discovered only when he began snoring on the autopsy table, according to news reports.

The man, 29-year-old Gonzalo Montoya Jiménez, was a prisoner at a jail in northern Spain. He was found unconscious in his cell on Sunday (Jan. 7), and was believed to be dead, according to the Spanish news outlet La Voz de Asturias. Three forensic doctors allegedly examined Jiménez and certified his death.

But four hours later, right before Jiménez's autopsy, he was heard making noises on the autopsy table, and found to still be alive. This discovery was not a moment too soon — Jiménez's body even had the marks painted on it to guide the autopsy, a family member told La Voz de Asturias.

He has now regained consciousness and is in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA) in Oviedo, Spain. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/61385-man-declared-dead-really-alive.html
 
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"Soldiers used to exchange items with their best friends when they were going over the top as good luck charms. They would wear one another's identity bracelet, or give each other their last letter home.
"Survivors who recovered bodies from the battleground would look for property on the body to identify them.

What could go wrong?
 
Romanian man to stay officially dead! :buck:

“I am officially dead, although I’m alive, I have no income and because I am listed dead, I can’t do anything.”

Link Gone MIA; Edit to Add More Background:
Romanian court tells man he is not alive

Constantin Reliu, 63, fails to overturn 2003 death certificate because he appealed too late

In a case reminiscent of a Kafka novel, a Romanian court has ruled that a 63-year-old man is dead despite what would appear to be convincing evidence to the contrary: the man himself appearing alive and well in court.

Constantin Reliu asked the court in the town of Barlad to overturn a death certificate obtained by his wife after he had spent more than a decade in Turkey, during which time he was out of contact with his family. The court told him he was too late, and would have to remain officially deceased.

“I am officially dead, although I’m alive,” a bemused Reliu told local media outlets. “I have no income and because I am listed dead, I can’t do anything.”

Reliu left Romania for Turkey in 1992, apparently to seek employment. He last returned to the country in 1999, and appears to have cut off all contact with his family. After years of silence from her estranged husband, Reliu’s wife obtained a backdated death certificate for him. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/16/romanian-court-tells-man-he-is-not-alive
 
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