This is the extraordinary moment a man ‘came back from the dead’ as he was prepared to be cremated in India.
Rohitash, 45, showed faint signs of life to avoid his own cremation just before he was to be burned at the stake in Jhunjhunu City, Rajasthan, last Thursday.
Footage shows the living but apparently catatonic man, wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by stunned onlookers, appearing to revive himself.
Rohitash, who is both mute and deaf, had spent three hours in a freezing mortuary before staff noticed he was still breathing.
He had reportedly fallen seriously ill the day before while staying at a local shelter before doctors pronounced him dead.
Officials explained the mistake to local media by claiming that medics had simply skipped the post-mortem examination to determine his death.
An ambulance was called to take him to Rajkiya Bhagwan Das Khetan (BDK) Hospital after noticing the mistake.
Rohitash made small movements to stun the onlookers as he was being prepared for cremation
He was quickly taken back to hospital after the discovery, but died shortly afterwards
Video showed him being rushed back to hospital after the horror mistake was realised
Officials said the patient was a mute and deaf orphan who was staying at a local shelter when he fell ill and was taken to BDK Hospital on November 20.
Doctors declared him dead after his condition continued to deteriorate.
Jhunjhunu police commissioner Sharad Chouodhary said, “No family members were present with the man when he initially arrived at the hospital.
‘His condition deteriorated and there were no signs of life.
“The doctors were supposed to do a post-mortem examination but they did nothing.”
“They just completed the paperwork formalities and sent the man for cremation.
There, Rohitash was reportedly held in a cold mortuary for several hours before the funeral rites.
“When the body was placed on the pyre, he woke up,” Chouodhary said.
Rohitash was then rushed back to the same hospital for emergency treatment.
Sadly, local media reported that Rohitash died on early November 22 morning while undergoing emergency treatment at the ICU of BDK Hospital.
Police said the chief medical officer and three doctors involved in the case have been suspended for alleged negligence.
Last year, a woman was found “gasping for air” in her body bag as she was being prepared for cremation at an Iowa care center.
The unnamed woman, who suffered from early-onset dementia, anxiety and depression, was pronounced dead at Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Urbandale after becoming unresponsive.
The 66-year-old was quickly placed in a zip-lock body bag and taken to Ankeny Funeral Home and Crematory.
But when funeral home staff unzipped the bag, they discovered that the woman was miraculously alive.
Her chest was still moving and she was gasping for air, they said, as noted in a legal note.
Rohitash was reportedly deaf and dumb and had spent three hours in a freezing mortuary
The Rohitash crematorium staff withdrew just before he was to be cremated
The home called 911 and paramedics noted a heartbeat and shallow breathing.
A care center employee reported that the woman was not breathing and had no pulse during a 12-hour shift.
The nurse said she checked on the woman “every hour throughout the night” to administer morphine and lorazepam as prescribed for comfort.
When she became unresponsive, she continued to assess the resident for approximately five minutes before determining that she had died.
She was formally declared dead about 90 minutes later – and about two hours before she was found alive.