Dead Mississippi man begins breathing in embalming room, coroner says

This isn't the first time I've read about someone being alive on the embalming table. Scary, isn't it?

It sounds like this gentleman got a little cranky when then put him in the bag. Can't say I blame him!

Whenever you see people declared dead in the movies, it is almost ALWAYS a case much like claude suggests. Even used PERFECTLY, no machine is always perfect. The machines are almost NEVER used PERFECTLY. Even if they were, more sensitive ones are rarely used. Imagine, even like a heart beat a minute could conceivably keep a person alive.(60 is probably about average) A breath may not even have to happen for a few minutes(again, maybe 60). Even if a machine DID measure that, would it be noticed? If it WERE noticed, would anyone figure the person was alive?

You would THINK they might check oxygen. Oxygen SHOULD be relatively high(well in the 90% range). I think most oxygen monitors won't even register oxygen without a substantial(maybe like 50+) pulse. Again though, RARELY used!

A long standing story, that apparently is true, is that a wake was to give a "dead" person time to wake up. Apparently, they used to just bury people. NOW, they may do autopsies, and generally embalm people. Once THAT is done, they are certainly dead.

Back from the Dead: 10 People Who Woke Up After Being Pronounced Dead - ODDEE

Steve

This does happen now and again. In the days before embalming many people were buried alive. For one reason or another a coffin would be dug up and they would find the person had woken up in the coffin and tried to get out. That to me is frightening as hell. Embalming was started for the purpose of making sure someone didn't wake up later underground and suffer an excruciating death. I'd sure rather be killed for certain on an embalming table that wake up underground later on.

I would absolutely hate to be working in a mortuary and have something like that happen.

What a dunderhead.

No wonder so many Mortician are alcoholics....

It happened to my father before I was born. He was in a massive auto accident. He started to breathe in the embalming room.

My father was co-owner of an air ambulance service operating out of the Tri-Cities, Washington, in the 70s. They mainly flew critically injured patients to trauma centers in Seattle or Portland. Occasionally they were called on to transport bodies.

A dead man had to be delivered to Seattle by the next morning so he could attend his funeral that afternoon. By 8pm, it was obvious the weather wasn't going to cooperate, so my dad took the family station wagon, loaded the body box in the back, and took off for Seattle.

Normally about a 3-1/2 hr drive, by 2am he was just coming to the top of Snoqualmie Pass. As he told it, it was the dead of night, eerily quiet, pitch black, and snowing like crazy. His was the only car he had seen for miles.

Then the body in the back belched. Dad said it was so loud that if it had have been a belching contest, the guy would have won, hands down.

My dad died that night, he said. He swore he had a heart attack and the only reason he came back is because he was so cold after sliding to a stop and running away from the car.

He gathered his nerve and checked on his passenger, who really seemed like he was dead. A passing snowplow called the state police. The policeman broke out laughing when dad told him what happened; evidently it was a relatively common occurrence.

The higher the altitude, the less air pressure there is. The pressure finally dropped so much that the air trapped in some body cavity had to escape somewhere.