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

This Peruvian woman was discovered to not be dead (yet) when she began banging on the lid of her coffin during her funeral.
Woman thought dead bangs on inside of coffin during funeral

Last week, a funeral was held for Rosa Isabel Céspedes Callaca of Chiclayo, Peru following a tragic car crash that killed her brother-in-law and severely injured her three children. During the funeral though, Callaca apparently began banging on the inside of her coffin, causing quite a scene.

Cemetery administrator Juan Segundo Cajo opened the casket and confirmed that Callaca had opened her eyes and was breathing. She was rushed to Ferreñafe Reference Hospital but apparently died for real just a few hours later.
Click to expand...
FULL STORY: https://boingboing.net/2022/05/04/woman-thought-dead-bangs-on-inside-of-coffin-during-funeral.html

See Also: https://www.the-sun.com/news/5254357/moment-dead-woman-knocks-on-her-coffin-funeral/
 
This is a curious borderline case. This North Carolina pastor's death certificate has been modified (and apparently retracted) after further tests indicated he was in a deep coma rather than clinically "brain dead." I'm not sure how much of this represents medical course reversal versus familial clutching at straws.
"I don't want to have false hope': Wife says North Carolina pastor who died is now alive

A North Carolina pastor emulated the story of his religion this week when his death certificate was supposedly redacted three days after he was declared dead. ...

"I just wanted to give a quick unexpected update here," Megan Marlow began on a Facebook live, Wednesday evening.

Saturday, Marlow met with a doctor about her husband's health. After an exam, the doctor announced that her husband — Grace Baptist Church Pastor Ryan Marlow — was clinically deceased, according to Marlow's account of the event.

The time of death was written down, she said.

Plans to match his organs to donor recipients began, she said. ...

Meanwhile, Marlow said, her husband remained on life support for the sake of his organ donations. ...

Monday night, the doctor called Marlow again to inform her that there was something peculiar about this case ... ; he was calling in an expert panel to review it.

"They said my husband did not in fact suffer neurological death, but that, he was not brain dead," Marlow said. ...

Instead, the doctors decided that Pastor Marlow had suffered traumatic brain damage which would alter the technical time of death from Saturday to Tuesday ...

Tuesday morning, her tears and family's sadness continued as they drove to the hospital for final goodbyes. ...

However, when the family arrived, Marlow's niece had a strange story to share. She said she had been showing Pastor Marlow videos of the family, and that his feet were moving. ...

There was blood flowing to Marlow's brain, after all, according to his wife.

Her video claims the doctors determined that Pastor Marlow is in a deep coma, at this time. - That he is not awake, but he will now be accepted as a patient at Duke University Hospital in Durham.

"My family was just completely dumbfounded," Marlow said. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.kcci.com/article/north-carolina-pastor-who-died-is-now-alive/41057735
 
Denver firefighters suspended for getting woman pronounced dead even though she was alive

Two Denver firefighters will serve unpaid suspensions for asking a doctor to pronounce a living woman dead even though they hadn’t assessed her or looked at her.

“The serious nature of this misconduct cannot be understated — the patient was pronounced, though she was in fact alive, and the medical care she deserved was delayed,” Mary Dulacki, chief deputy executive director of the Denver Department of Public Safety, wrote.

Lt. Patrick Lopez and firefighter Marshall Henry on June 24 responded to a welfare check after a caller said he hadn’t heard from his daughter in several days, according to the disciplinary letter. The caller said his daughter had just had stomach surgery and it was unusual to not hear from her every day.

Denver police Officer Eugene McComas entered the home and found the woman inside. The officer told the firefighters outside that the woman’s skin was discolored, she was leaking fluids and she smelled of decomposition.

Lopez then dialed the number for the on-call emergency department physician at Denver Health Medical Center to obtain a pronouncement of death. Lopez handed the phone to Henry while the line was still ringing.

Henry relayed the police officer’s description of the woman as though he had made the observations, saying “she is bloated and obviously dead." The doctor asked Henry whether the woman had a pulse or if there were signs of trauma and Henry said no, despite not having assessed her or looked at her himself.

The doctor pronounced the woman dead.

But after the firefighters left the scene, McComas went back inside the house and saw the woman moving. The officer called the fire department and an ambulance back to the house and the woman was taken to the hospital, the letter states.

The woman survived.

https://www.denverpost.com/2022/11/02/denver-firefighters-death-pronouncement/

maximus otter
 
Dead man found alive in hotel 8 months after cremation in case of mistaken identity

Deepak Balakrishnan Kandi was officially declared dead following his cremation ceremony before police discovered him alive in the town of Margao in Goa, India.

Sources claim Deepak went missing on June 7 last year from the town of Meppayur, which is in the Kerala district and around 540km south of Margao.

A missing person's report was filed at the local police station before a body of a man recovered from a beach in Kerala in July and wrongfully identified as Deepak.

Deepak's family performed the final rites, but days later, police discovered the cremated body in fact belonged to Irshad, a native of Panthirkkara in Kerala, who had also gone missing.

A DNA test was then carried out to confirm the remains of the man cremated were not Deepak's and a major search was launched.

He was then discovered by officers during a routine surveillance of hotels.

Deepak told police that he had travelled around the country, including to Jaipur, Delhi and Punjab, before arriving in Goa recently.

Deepak claimed he moved to the hotel in Margao, where he eventually fell on to the radar of the police, bringing his eight-month disappearing act to a close.
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hunck said:
Dead man found alive in hotel 8 months after cremation in case of mistaken identity

Deepak Balakrishnan Kandi was officially declared dead following his cremation ceremony before police discovered him alive in the town of Margao in Goa, India.

Sources claim Deepak went missing on June 7 last year from the town of Meppayur, which is in the Kerala district and around 540km south of Margao.
Click to expand...

He was then discovered by officers during a routine surveillance of hotels.
Click to expand...

Wonder what that's about then?
 
Woman found alive in body bag at funeral home

A US care centre has been fined $10,000 (£8,185) after a funeral home discovered a woman sent to it in a body bag was still alive.

The Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals said the 66-year-old woman was declared dead at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Centre in Urbandale on 3 January.

The woman, whose name has not been released, had early onset dementia, anxiety and depression and had been in hospice care since 28 December.

She was placed in a zipped body bag and taken to the Ankeny Funeral Home & Crematory, where workers found that she was breathing and called emergency services.

The woman was ultimately returned to hospice care, where she died on 5 January.

https://news.sky.com/story/iowa-car...-in-a-body-bag-was-found-to-be-alive-12801866

maximus otter
 
hunck said:
Dunno - it’s all a bit weird - a body is wrongly identified as him, he’s cremated & then a DNA test is done..
Click to expand...
It's the
He was then discovered by officers during a routine surveillance of hotels.
bit that puzzles me. Do the police there regularly trawl hotels for bogus guest?
 
The police might just be keeping an eye out for cheating couples.
 
escargot said:
It's the
He was then discovered by officers during a routine surveillance of hotels.
bit that puzzles me. Do the police there regularly trawl hotels for bogus guest?
Click to expand...
I reckon they were looking for missing crypto queen Ruja Ignatova. It’s just a theory though.
 
Florida medics disciplined after “dead” patient found to be breathing.

Two Florida paramedics have been suspended after a man they pronounced dead was found to be breathing, a report says.

Clearwater Fire and Rescue sent the pair to a home in unincorporated Pinellas County for a reported cardiac arrest last Wednesday morning.

The medics pronounced the 65-year-old patient dead "shortly after their arrival," according to a statement from the department. They reportedly left the scene once the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office arrived to investigate the apparent death.

After a deputy discovered the man was still breathing, Largo Fire Rescue crews were called to the home. Clearwater Fire and Rescue said about 28 minutes elapsed between the initial call and Largo medics' arrival.

The man was still recovering from cardiac arrest at a hospital as of Saturday.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-medics-disciplined-dead-patient-found-breathing-report-says

maximus otter
 
Man found alive — nine years after his family 'cremated him'

An elderly man has turned up alive nine years after his family believed they had cremated him following a car accident, reports say.

Zhuo Kangluo, who was found 'dead' at the roadside after fleeing a Chinese care home, is said to have appeared alive in a village.

68125871-11797991-image-a-19_1677497996468.jpg


Reports of a man acting strangely were first received by Chongqing authorities in August, according to China News Network.

Officers initially struggled to identify the man given his refusal to answer questions, but a DNA test on Tuesday reportedly matched with the brother of Zhuo Kangluo.

Nine years ago, a man who died from a car accident was wrongly identified as Zhuo by relatives and villagers.

The body was cremated after his nephew allegedly did not want an autopsy and DNA testing was unavailable for immediate relatives.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...me-2014-dead-shocks-family-turning-alive.html

maximus otter
 
A bizarre and interesting Tale, could have fitted into several other Threads as well.

A rapist and murderer who escaped a South African prison by faking his own death has been arrested in Tanzania.

Thabo Bester was at large for a year after it was thought he died by setting himself on fire in his prison cell. A manhunt was launched last month after a new post-mortem investigation revealed the body was not actually his. Bester was caught on Friday with his girlfriend and a third suspect and will be extradited to South Africa. Police said they believe the trio were intending to flee into neighbouring Kenya.

Bester is known as the "Facebook rapist" for using the social networking site to lure his victims. He was convicted in 2012 for the rape and murder of his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu. A year earlier, he was found guilty of raping and robbing two other women.

In May, it was reported he had been found dead in his cell after apparently setting himself on fire at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in the city of Bloemfontein. However, local media began to raise doubts about Bester's death late last year.

In March, police opened a new murder investigation after further tests revealed the deceased was not Bester - and that the unidentified person had died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

Employees of the British-owned security company G4S, which ran the prison where he was held, have been accused of helping him flee.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65221385
 
ramonmercado said:
A bizarre and interesting Tale, could have fitted into several other Threads as well.

A rapist and murderer who escaped a South African prison by faking his own death has been arrested in Tanzania.

Thabo Bester was at large for a year after it was thought he died by setting himself on fire in his prison cell. A manhunt was launched last month after a new post-mortem investigation revealed the body was not actually his. Bester was caught on Friday with his girlfriend and a third suspect and will be extradited to South Africa. Police said they believe the trio were intending to flee into neighbouring Kenya.

Bester is known as the "Facebook rapist" for using the social networking site to lure his victims. He was convicted in 2012 for the rape and murder of his model girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu. A year earlier, he was found guilty of raping and robbing two other women.

In May, it was reported he had been found dead in his cell after apparently setting himself on fire at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in the city of Bloemfontein. However, local media began to raise doubts about Bester's death late last year.

In March, police opened a new murder investigation after further tests revealed the deceased was not Bester - and that the unidentified person had died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

Employees of the British-owned security company G4S, which ran the prison where he was held, have been accused of helping him flee.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65221385
Click to expand...

Back in the RSA.

A man serving a life sentence for murder and rape who escaped from a top-security prison with help from guards by faking his own death was taken back to South Africa on Thursday after going on the run with his girlfriend.

The couple were arrested in Tanzania last weekend.

State broadcaster SABC showed video of Thabo Bester being driven from Johannesburg’s Lanseria Airport in a police vehicle with bars across the windows. Heavily-armed police put the girlfriend, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, into a separate white van at the airport.

Magudumana was expected to be charged with murder as part of the elaborate jailbreak plot, which involved getting a dead body into the prison where Bester was held to help him stage his own death in a fire and escape.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-41115640.html
 
ramonmercado said:
Back in the RSA.

A man serving a life sentence for murder and rape who escaped from a top-security prison with help from guards by faking his own death was taken back to South Africa on Thursday after going on the run with his girlfriend.

The couple were arrested in Tanzania last weekend.

State broadcaster SABC showed video of Thabo Bester being driven from Johannesburg’s Lanseria Airport in a police vehicle with bars across the windows. Heavily-armed police put the girlfriend, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, into a separate white van at the airport.

Magudumana was expected to be charged with murder as part of the elaborate jailbreak plot, which involved getting a dead body into the prison where Bester was held to help him stage his own death in a fire and escape.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-41115640.html
Click to expand...

Background pice on Bester.

The daring prison break, the celebrity girlfriend and the escape across borders had all the elements of a fictional thriller.

But in some ways that tempting description serves to glamorise and trivialise what South African rapist and murderer Thabo Bester actually did. While many were open-mouthed after each revelation about how this man managed to flee prison and live undetected for a year, his victims saw it a different way. It also exposed a stunning level of official incompetence.

One of the women he attacked spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity. Bester, known locally as the "Facebook rapist" for using the site to lure his victims, had pretended to be an agent who was going to help her find a job in television.

"Reading his stories in the news is bringing back a lot of triggering memories," she said. "The escape left me triggered and traumatised. My only prayer is that he stays in jail and doesn't get a chance to hurt any more people."

He was never convicted of her rape, but in 2011 Bester was found guilty of raping and robbing two women. A year later he was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of his then girlfriend, model Nomfundo Thyulu.

Bester went by many aliases and was a charming, charismatic smooth talker - a personality that got him what he wanted. But behind the charm was a cunning career criminal, a dangerous and ruthless man.

"He's a person who clearly doesn't really feel much remorse and has gotten worse, not better over time," clinical psychologist Dr Gerard Labuschagne, who first met Bester in 2011, told the BBC. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65311848
 
escargot said:
Wonder what that's about then?
Click to expand...
Apparently, South Asia has a problem where people are fraudulently declared dead so that others can inherit, expropriate, or outright steal their belongings, especially real estate. The problem is so common, that organizations have been formed specifically for the purpose of helping "dead" people reclaim their lives. (For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Pradesh_Association_of_Dead_People)

When a crime is this prevalent in society, it would not be surprising for special police task forces to be set up to deal with it. Also, there may be some overlap with task forces looking into people who have themselves fraudulently declared dead for a variety of other reasons, such as escaping debt or prison time.
 
ramonmercado said:
Background pice on Bester.

The daring prison break, the celebrity girlfriend and the escape across borders had all the elements of a fictional thriller.

But in some ways that tempting description serves to glamorise and trivialise what South African rapist and murderer Thabo Bester actually did. While many were open-mouthed after each revelation about how this man managed to flee prison and live undetected for a year, his victims saw it a different way. It also exposed a stunning level of official incompetence.

One of the women he attacked spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity. Bester, known locally as the "Facebook rapist" for using the site to lure his victims, had pretended to be an agent who was going to help her find a job in television.

"Reading his stories in the news is bringing back a lot of triggering memories," she said. "The escape left me triggered and traumatised. My only prayer is that he stays in jail and doesn't get a chance to hurt any more people."

He was never convicted of her rape, but in 2011 Bester was found guilty of raping and robbing two women. A year later he was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of his then girlfriend, model Nomfundo Thyulu.

Bester went by many aliases and was a charming, charismatic smooth talker - a personality that got him what he wanted. But behind the charm was a cunning career criminal, a dangerous and ruthless man.

"He's a person who clearly doesn't really feel much remorse and has gotten worse, not better over time," clinical psychologist Dr Gerard Labuschagne, who first met Bester in 2011, told the BBC. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65311848
Click to expand...

Update,

The father of a man whose body was used by a notorious South African rapist to escape from prison has demanded to know how his son died.

Thabo Bester managed to break out of prison last year after faking his own death by setting fire to his cell. A body was found inside, which was initially believed to be Bester's but it has now been identified as belonging to Katlego Bereng. His father, Batho Mpholo, says he needs "the truth and nothing but the truth".

He says that police told him that his son had collapsed in the city of Bloemfontein and then died in hospital, before he was taken to a mortuary.

"How did Thabo Bester get hold of my son's body if he was in a government mortuary," he asked in an interview with the ENCA news channel.

When the body found in the cell was re-examined in March this year after suspicions were raised by local media, it was found that the person had died as a result of blunt-force trauma to the head.

Mr Mpholo says he does not believe the police account of what had happened to his son, who was aged 31 when he went missing in April 2022.

The South African police declined to comment on Mr Mpholo's statement, beyond saying that they were pleased to bring closure to the family.

Mr Mpholo says that relatives went to Bloemfontein's mortuaries looking for him and there was no sign of him - and no news until his mother was asked to do a DNA test last week.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65365540
 
Gasping, but was she coughing?

Mourners at the wake of an elderly Ecuadorean woman were startled to discover she was still alive.

A hospital doctor in the city of Babahoyo declared Bella Montoya, 76, dead following a suspected stroke. She was placed in a coffin and taken to a funeral parlour, where relatives held a vigil before her planned burial. When, after almost five hours, they opened the coffin to change her clothes ahead of the funeral, the woman gasped for air.

"My mum started to move her left hand, to open her eyes, her mouth; she struggled to breathe," her son Gilbert Balberán described the moment he realised his mother was still alive.

Video taken by one of the mourners shows her lying in an open casket struggling to breathe, while another complains that an ambulance they called has not yet arrived.

Minutes later, firefighters arrive and lift Bella Montoya from the coffin onto a stretcher and take her back to the same hospital where she had been declared dead.

Her son told Ecuadorean media that she was in intensive care, but was responsive.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65886245
 
Erinaceus said:
These cases don't often end well though.
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There was a story years ago, possibly in t'mag, where someone woke up in the open coffin at their funeral.
They jumped out and ran off down the street screaming, and were hit by a car and this time, killed good.
The mourners caught up, chucked them back in the coffin and got on with burying them.
 
escargot said:
There was a story years ago, possibly in t'mag, where someone woke up in the open coffin at their funeral.
They jumped out and ran off down the street screaming, and were hit by a car and this time, killed good.
The mourners caught up, chucked them back in the coffin and got on with burying them.
Click to expand...
Heh! It’s a good story but I’m raising an eyebrow..
 
escargot said:
There was a story years ago, possibly in t'mag, where someone woke up in the open coffin at their funeral.
They jumped out and ran off down the street screaming,
Click to expand...
Reminds me of those Japanese 'gameshows' where they'd play pranks on unsuspecting mortuary attendants.
 
ramonmercado said:
Gasping, but was she coughing?

Mourners at the wake of an elderly Ecuadorean woman were startled to discover she was still alive.

A hospital doctor in the city of Babahoyo declared Bella Montoya, 76, dead following a suspected stroke. She was placed in a coffin and taken to a funeral parlour, where relatives held a vigil before her planned burial. When, after almost five hours, they opened the coffin to change her clothes ahead of the funeral, the woman gasped for air.

"My mum started to move her left hand, to open her eyes, her mouth; she struggled to breathe," her son Gilbert Balberán described the moment he realised his mother was still alive.

Video taken by one of the mourners shows her lying in an open casket struggling to breathe, while another complains that an ambulance they called has not yet arrived.

Minutes later, firefighters arrive and lift Bella Montoya from the coffin onto a stretcher and take her back to the same hospital where she had been declared dead.

Her son told Ecuadorean media that she was in intensive care, but was responsive.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65886245
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She's died.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-18/ecuador-dead-woman-coffin-knocking/102493200
----------------------------------------------
A woman who had been declared dead and surprised her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake this month has died after seven days in intensive care.

Gilberto Barbera Montoya, the woman's son, said doctors at the state hospital where she was rushed after the incident said she died on Friday evening local time.

Ecuador's health ministry confirmed in a statement that 76-year-old Bella Montoya died from an ischemic stroke after spending a week in intensive care.

It said Ms Montoya had remained under "permanent surveillance", but didn't provide further information on the medical investigation surrounding the case.
 
Something very strange is happening in tiktok/showbizland right now.
First of all, a child rapper/influencer (yes, there is such a thing, sadly, and it seems that none of the adults in her life have had her interests at heart) has been declared dead along with her brother on her instagram account (currently run by her father, I think). However, others were suspicious as there is no official report of either her or her brother's death. Next, an account claiming to be her brother claims it's a hoax and they're both still alive somewhere. If it is a hoax of course it's great that she hasn't died tragically at 14 but also dreadful if the family would orchestrate such a hoax for publicity.

The whole story of her rise to fame is complicated and horrible, as various members of the family (brother, mother, father) have all turned against each other while trying to monopolize on the kid's moneymaking potential.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/usshowb...me-age-9-died-family-says-Instagram-post.html
 
James_H said:
Something very strange is happening in tiktok/showbizland right now.
First of all, a child rapper/influencer (yes, there is such a thing, sadly, and it seems that none of the adults in her life have had her interests at heart) has been declared dead along with her brother on her instagram account (currently run by her father, I think). However, others were suspicious as there is no official report of either her or her brother's death. Next, an account claiming to be her brother claims it's a hoax and they're both still alive somewhere. If it is a hoax of course it's great that she hasn't died tragically at 14 but also dreadful if the family would orchestrate such a hoax for publicity.

The whole story of her rise to fame is complicated and horrible, as various members of the family (brother, mother, father) have all turned against each other while trying to monopolize on the kid's moneymaking potential.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/usshowb...me-age-9-died-family-says-Instagram-post.html
Click to expand...
It's all very odd and somewhat dystopian, I hope the dysfunctionality of this family and their hunger for fame and fortune comes as a lesson to everyone although I doubt it, the fame machine is getting ever more voracious it eats them up and spits them out into the rubbish bin of history at an ever alarming rate
 
James_H said:
Something very strange is happening in tiktok/showbizland right now.
First of all, a child rapper/influencer (yes, there is such a thing, sadly, and it seems that none of the adults in her life have had her interests at heart) has been declared dead along with her brother on her instagram account (currently run by her father, I think). However, others were suspicious as there is no official report of either her or her brother's death. Next, an account claiming to be her brother claims it's a hoax and they're both still alive somewhere. If it is a hoax of course it's great that she hasn't died tragically at 14 but also dreadful if the family would orchestrate such a hoax for publicity.

The whole story of her rise to fame is complicated and horrible, as various members of the family (brother, mother, father) have all turned against each other while trying to monopolize on the kid's moneymaking potential.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/usshowb...me-age-9-died-family-says-Instagram-post.html
Click to expand...
Lil Tay is alive, it was a hoax orchestrated by her dad. She alleges physical and mental abuse from him.

https://www.thewrap.com/lil-tay-instagram-live-music-video-youtube-influencer/
 
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