"Dead" man found breathing in morgue

www.msnbc.msn.com...

I know its happened from time to time but i wonder just how often??



Emergency medical technicians had declared 29-year-old Larry D. Green dead almost two hours earlier, after he was hit by a car.

Medical examiner J.B. Perdue was called to the accident scene Monday but did not examine Green then. Later, he was documenting Green’s injuries when he noticed the man was breathing.

“I had to look twice myself just to make sure it was there, that’s how subtle it was,” Perdue said.

Green, 29, was taken to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, where he was in critical condition Wednesday.

Several members of the Franklin County emergency medical service have been suspended pending an investigation, said Darnell Batton, the county attorney.

I wonder how many people arent really dead when they go to the morgues to be "prepared"?

Did a quick google search - over 17,000 results - front end all the same story, but others kick in after about 10 pages. A few tidbits from the Mortuary Management 2002 Back Issues:

* Corpse Still Breathing (Bordeaux, France)
A 68-year-old man was mistakenly declared dead and placed in refrigeration at a funeral home where a worker noticed he was still alive.

* Woman Sent To Morgue Alive (Berlin, Germany)
An elderly German woman was apparently sent to a morgue while still alive, only to die there later from cold.

* Nearly Cremated Alive (Khon Kaen, Thailand)
A 17-year-old teenager woke up and began to cry as his body was being rolled into a furnace for cremation.

www.abbottandhast.com...


...kind of a ghoulish way to spend a few minutes, but interesting...

Happens quite a bit apparently.....

archives.cnn.com...
news.bbc.co.uk...
www.near-death.com...
www.applesforhealth.com...

Apparently. Now, how do we KNOW if someone we love is "really" dead?

We're supposed to take the word of the mortician? I think not.

Any suggestions to stop this?
I know its a ghoulish subject but this is the kind of news that makes you think..

I wonder if the guy had a "tunnel of light" experience, or other form of OBE?

I've seen the exact opposite where the doctors come out and tell you "Oh, Xyz will be fine, just needs to recover" then five minutes later "Oh, were sorry, they arent going to make it after all, we misdiagnosed" its the kind of crap that is likely to get a doctor seriously injured by family of the patient/soon-to-be-dead.

In some cases, people have been reported to be burid alive and died due to lack of air. I'll do a quick google search to see if i come across anything

Is there a tax write off benefit by bringing a dead body versus a live body to a hospitals morgue as in this instance? Who knows the answer?

This phenomenon has been going on since the dawn of time.

The African "zombie" legends and Western/European vampire legends supposedly originate from events such as these. There are certain rare illnesses that cause the bodies vital signs to become so low as to be undetectable by normal, "non-scientific" means (feeling for a pulse, listening for breathing, pupil dilation under light exposure). The victims will usually die as a result of the disease anyway, but sometimes they willl "wake up",, and usually by that stage already in a coffin. Even in modern times, coffins have been dug up with scratch marks and broken fingernails on the inside.

There are certain plant in Africa which, when ingested in the correct amount, induces this state. Practitioners of voodoo would use this to create "zombies" and people would "come back from the dead", still drugged and spasming from the toxins, and probably a little crazy or hysterical after waking up in a coffin; easily mistakable for a zombie. If you buried your deceased loved one, and then they rocked up at the door three days later, drooling, emaciated, covered in dirt from the grave, jerking and spasming, and gibbering like a madman, you'd probably believe it too.

More here.

I work in a hospital and I wouldn't doubt that this happens quite frequently especially with the elderly or terminally ill. Once it is decided that a patient will recieve comfort measures only their heart is usually not monitored so when a palpable pulse or visible repirations are not present it is assumed that they have passed. A doctor must pronounce them but most of the time this is a quick check with the nurse and visual conformation. I would not doubt that some are sent to the mourge still, in a sense, in this world. I have always had that nightmare thought of lying on a cold slab in the mourge, unable to move, but very much alive and waiting for the autopsy.

Well, i for one, would like to have a crack at living again..And if anyone i love dies i want to know it was God's will and not the will of the doctor, you know?
I wonder why this isnt a bigger issue in todays society.

Originally posted by skychiefI have always had that nightmare thought of lying on a cold slab in the mourge, unable to move, but very much alive and waiting for the autopsy.

You just had to spoil my day, didn't you. What a way to go out. Don't even want to think about it.

Originally posted by dgtempe
I wonder why this isnt a bigger issue in todays society.

Probably too rare to be an issue.

I remember an "amazing stories" TV prog where a little boy had fallen through the ice on a frozen lake. They pulled him out after about 20 min, resuscitated himj and he was fine. No brain damage, nothing. Apparently the icy temperatures had put his metabolism in a kind of stasis; sill functioning, but at a very slow rate. Of course it was a great marketing bonus for the cryogenics crowd.

Apparently the icy temperatures had put his metabolism in a kind of stasis; sill functioning, but at a very slow rate.

Its called the mammalian diving reflex you can learn a little more about it here- www.deeperblue.net...