It happened within a few minutes.
Bujji Aamma, a 52-year-old Indian woman who was declared dead, woke up minutes before her body was cremated.
Victim of a terrible fire at her home on February 1, the woman from Brahmapur (east coast of India) suffered 50% serious burns and had to be transported to MKCG Medical College and Hospital for treatment.
As her family could not afford to pay for her hospitalization, she had to return home despite being in critical condition.
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As the days passed, her condition worsened until she stopped breathing, her husband Sibaram Palo told the Times of India.
“We thought she was dead and contacted other people in the locality to arrange a hearse to transport the body to the cremation site,” he said.
When the locals had almost finished assembling the funeral pyre, the man who was at the back of the hearse while transporting Bujji Aamma's body suddenly saw the woman waking up.
“That’s when Bujji opened his eyes and answered our calls, which shocked us,” he told the Indian media.
“At first we were scared because we had never seen such an incident, although we had heard some stories like this before,” she adds.
Not a first in India
The driver of the hearse was then informed and took Bujji Aamma back to her home in the same vehicle.
According to the crematorium, Indians do not need to provide an official death certificate to perform the last rites of a family member, unlike foreigners.
This is not the first time that a person reported dead has woken up in India.
Last month, an 80-year-old man named Darsha Singh Brar and announced dead by doctors resuscitated in the ambulance after it passed over a pothole, reports the media NDTV.
In 2021, an Indian woman declared dead of Covid also woke up just before her cremation.