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It’s an incredible story that happened in India. A 52-year-old woman, who her loved ones thought was dead, finally woke up while she was on her way to her cremation.
The story seems unreal, yet it is reported by the Times of India newspaper. A 52-year-old woman, Bujji Aamma, was declared dead by her family after suffering severe burns in a fire that broke out at her home. She finally opened her eyes in the hearse, en route to her cremation.
In critical condition after being burned
After his house burned down on 1er Last February, the fifty-year-old suffered 50% burns and was taken home, due to lack of means to pay for treatment at the MKCG Medical College and Hospital where she was taken. Her condition quickly worsened at home and her loved ones noticed one day that she had stopped breathing.
“We thought she was dead and contacted others in the locality to arrange a hearse to transport the body to the cremation site” explains her husband to the Times of India.
Waking up a few minutes before being cremated
As Bujji Aamma’s relatives prepared for her cremation, the woman opened her eyes in the hearse carrying her. “That’s when Bujji opened his eyes and answered our calls, which shocked us. At first we were scared because we had never seen such an incident, although we had heard some stories like this before” he adds. Bujji Aamma was finally taken home by the driver of the hearse.
These unusual cases of the dead coming back to life can be explained by what is called Lazarus syndrome. Other cases have been reported in the media: the case at the end of January, still in India, of an 80-year-old man who woke up in the ambulance taking him to his cremation site; in October 2023, a 50-year-old English patient who woke up in hospital after being declared dead by paramedics; in April 2022, a garbage collector from Neuilly-sur-Marne was declared dead by the Samu before waking up while he was in a body bag…
This rare phenomenon is so called with reference to the Bible. Indeed, according to the Gospels, Jesus resurrects a man named Lazarus after explaining that he was only “asleep”. By extension, the fact that a person supposed to be dead is resurrected is therefore called this.
The incredible phenomenon of Lazarus
As Doctor Gérald Kierzek, emergency physician and medical director of Doctissimo, explained at the time, “the diagnosis of death is clinical, almost empirical”. In fact, there is noan additional examination, such as an x-ray or a blood test, to make this diagnosis”. The latter is based, in practice, on a “cluster of arguments such as the absence of pulse, respiration or electrical activity of the heart (flat electrocardiogram)”.
As Dr Kierzek points out, these are “extremely rare cases”. Exceptional cases of awakening may be linked to other facts, “We are very wary of profound bradycardia, which is characterized by a heart rate so low that the pulse may appear absent, of drug poisoning or even hypothermia, which can wrongly lead to the conclusion of death even though the person is not dead”.
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