iStockphoto
In a story straight out of a nightmare, a 65-year-old woman was found alive while waiting to be cremated after staff heard knocking coming from within the coffin. The horrific close call reportedly occurred over the weekend at the Buddhist Wat Rat Prakhong Tham temple in Thailand.
According to the woman’s brother, she had been bedridden for about two years, and her health had been steadily declining. Two days before being brought in for cremation, she appeared to have stopped breathing. The brother said he was informed by officials that his sister had died.
After driving three hours to a hospital in Bangkok so that his sister’s organs could be donated, he was turned away because he did not have an official death certificate, just local declarations of death and non-medical paperwork. She had reportedly requested her organs be donated upon her death.
Despite being considered to be dead for two days by her family, the woman was actually alive
It was at that point that he transferred his sister’s body to the temple, which offers free cremations. However, before any cremation ritual could begin, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager said he heard a light knocking sound coming from inside the coffin.
“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” Sky News reports the temple manager said. “I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time.”
The cremation service had originally been scheduled to be live streamed by the temple. According to the Guardian, the temple “posted a video on its Facebook page, showing a woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pick-up truck, slightly moving her arms and head, leaving temple staff bewildered.”
After being found alive, the woman was transferred to a hospital where she was assessed and treated for hypoglycemia. She was later reportedly released into the custody of her family.
“I’ve cared for my sister for three years. Officials told us she had died,” the woman’s brother, told The Bangkok Post. “All the documents had been issued, so we placed her in a coffin and brought her to the temple for cremation.”