Watson Franklin Mandujano Doroteo was inside his coffin when some of his relatives noticed that his rib-cage was rising and falling as if he was continuing to breathe. Earlier Doroteo, who lived in Tingo Maria, had been pronounced dead by doctors after experiencing fever and chills following an operation on his mouth on Saturday, October 21.
A doctor was called as the funeral was taking place and he confirmed the man showed vital signs of life. He was removed from the coffin and immediately transferred to hospital where it was later confirmed he was, in fact, dead.
His relatives are now claiming he may have been alive all along, however, and sedated as a result of the drugs he had been given for the dental operation.
"They gave him diazepam," one of his family insisted.
There are very few recorded cases of muscle movement after death, although there have been other instances where people have previously been mistakenly diagnosed as being dead.
Lazarus Phenomenon
Cases involving people who have returned from the dead are described as having the Lazarus syndrome. The phenomenon is defined as a delayed return of spontaneous circulation after CPR has been administered and halted.
The syndrome is named after Lazarus of Bethany, who according to the New Testament of the Bible, was brought back to life by Jesus Christ four days after his death.
Since 1982 when the phenomenon was first described in medical journals, there have been at least 38 reported cases. Yet scientists believe that it is much more common than studies actually suggest.
"The Lazarus phenomenon is a grossly under reported event. The reason for these can be attributed to the fact that medicolegal issues are brought to light in cases which are pronounced dead which later turn out to have been alive. The professional expertise of the resuscitating doctor can be brought into question, not to mention the fact that such an event can lead to disrepute among colleagues," said Dr. Vaibhavi Sahni, a Maxillofacial surgeon, in a report in 2016.
There are some theories surrounding what causes the Lazarus syndrome, some suggesting it may be down to a pressure build-up in the chest caused by CPR resulting in it slowly kick-starting the heart back into action, or possibly delayed action of medication used as part of the resuscitation efforts such as adrenaline.
Previously, in the 19th century there were business that focused on making and selling equipment to doctors and morgues to actually test if the person was really dead, including allowing members of the public to stick needles under the nails of dead bodies, or in their eyes, as recently documented in the 2017 Netflix show Lore.
The Many Cases of Premature Burials
In a number of recorded cases people have woken up at their own funerals, prompting fears that premature burial may not have been consigned to the history books by advances in modern medicine.
A 17 year-old boy woke up on the way to his own funeral in India in February, 2017, after his family assumed a lethal dog bite had killed him.
Kumar Marewad had earlier been bitten by a stray dog and taken to hospital in a critical condition. His health deteriorated quickly and doctors eventually pulled the plug on the life support system he had been placed on.
⭐️ #News • Stuff of nightmares: Indian teen wakes up at own funeral: As Kumar Marewad’s family were escorting his… https://t.co/MB3Td49pQx pic.twitter.com/wXabvPYU7Q
— Kazi Australia™ 🇦🇺 (@Kazi_Australia) February 20, 2017
Relatives believed he died when he stopped breath, so decided to take the teenager straight for his funeral — only for him to wake up en route. Less than a mile from his village where the funeral was planned, the teenager opened his eyes and started hyperventilating.
The boy was taken back to the hospital and put back on the ventilator after doctors diagnosed him as suffering from an infection called meningoencephalitis.
A three-year-old Filipino girl was also reported to have woken up in her open casket during her funeral. A doctor attending it declared she was alive while the family cancelled the funeral and took her home.
The mother later said she had been misled by the fake doctor after medics at a local hospital confirmed the youngster had been dead all along.
In Egypt, the funeral of a waiter suspected of dying from a heart attack suddenly became a celebration in 2012 after the doctor signing his death certificate realized he was still alive.
Earlier a 33-year-old man from Venezuela declared dead after a motorway accident woke during his own autopsy. Carlos Camejo stirred after medical examiners cut into his face as they began the post mortem.
"The pain was unbearable," he revealed later, before startling his wife as he sat in the hospital corridor when she came to identify her husband's body.
