The people who came back from the dead: Thrashing around during organ removal, waking up in body bags and a knock, knock from inside the coffin... terrifying tales of life after death

Death is one of few certainties in life, and everybody has their time.

But in a small exception of cases, there have been stories floated for centuries of people being prepared for burial - or, hauntingly, buried - while they are still alive.

The Victorians famously got around their Taphophobia by attaching bells above ground to coffins six feet under, so victims could be rescued.

Even then, newspaper readers were horrified and fascinated by stories of people being dissected while still alive, or waking up while being embalmed. 

Fiction writers won huge audiences with terrifying stories of people bricked into catacombs and late family members trapped in tombs for weeks on end - coming to define the gothic genre.

And even today, in the internet age, tragic stories are heard from all over the world of people being wrongly pronounced dead and rescued only when relatives come to visit.

Organ donor starts thrashing around in the operating room

In October 2021, an organ donor was wheeled into the operating room at a hospital in Richmond, Kentucky.

It was a standard procedure for the staff: TJ Hoover, 36, had kindly donated parts of his body for transplantation. A surgeon would retrieve them with help from nurses.

Natasha Miller was on hand to help preserve the organs when she realised something was not right.

She told NPR recently that while the donor had been declared dead after a drug overdone, he was moving around - kind of thrashing.

You could see he had tears coming down. He was crying visibly, she said.

Nyckoletta Martin, another organ preservationist who quit over the incident, was not in the room but had read the case notes.

She said a report noted the donor showed signs of life when doctors tried to examine his heart. 

The donor had woken up during his procedure that morning for a cardiac catheterization. And he was thrashing around on the table, she claimed. 

That’s everybody’s worst nightmare, right? Being alive during surgery and knowing that someone is going to cut you open and take your body parts out? Martin said. 

The room quickly reacted and the doctors refused to continue the surgery. 

However, Miller alleged that when her colleague called KODA - which had coordinated the transplant- the supervisor told them they were going to do this case anyway and the hospital needed to find another doctor. 

The organ retrieval was ultimately cancelled - but whistleblowers have raised their concerns about the incident.

Several staff needed therapy after the incident, Martin told NPR.

Julie Bergen, president and chief operating officer for Network for Hope - a merger between KODA and LifeCenter Organ Donation Network - has denied the incident. 

TJ Hoover II, 36, had been declared brain dead when surgeons went to remove his organs at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Kentucky in October 2021, but later became reanimated

He had been rushed to the hospital following a drug overdose 

Parents double-heartbreak as baby moves during funeral - only to die as medics try to save her 

Eight-month-old Kiara Crislayne de Moura dos Santos was pronounced dead on October 19 after doctors determined she was not breathing and had no heartbeat.

It was not clear from local reports what had happened at Faustino Riscarolli Hospital, but it was promptly arranged that Kiara would be buried later that day.

Within two hours, funeral director Aureo Arruda Ramos collected the little girls body from the morgue and began making preparations with the family.

The funeral was underway by 7pm, but the service was soon stopped when one mourner noticed the babys hand was still moving inside the open coffin.

One of those attending touched the babys hand and was staggered when it appeared to curl back, according to local reports.

Firefighter paramedics were called to the service and found the baby girl still had a pulse.

Her oxygen saturation level was 84 per cent - well below the threshold of 90 per cent which is considered a serious health concern - and the paramedics rushed her back to hospital.

But by the time Kiara had arrived, her heart stopped again - and she was declared dead for a second time.

Her heartbroken father said: We were devastated already. Then there came a little bit of hope, but then this ended up happening.

Kiara Crislayne de Moura dos Santos was admitted to Faustino Riscarolli Hospital in Correia Pinto, in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, in the early hours of October 19

Paramedics are seen at the funeral of the baby who was found to be alive at her own funeral

A tearful father, Cristiano Santos, is pictured speaking to Brazilian media

Morgue workers find care home patient still alive during pandemic 

Shanghai morgue workers were stunned to find a care home patient still alive while taking the body to the morgue in a hearse.

The unnamed resident was being loaded into the back of the vehicle in a body bag when staff realised he was still going strong.

Hes alive! one of the workers exclaimed in footage that sparked outrage in Chinese social media in 2022. Hes alive, I saw it, hes alive. Dont cover him any more. 

One of the workers can be seen covering the mans face again even after realising he was still alive.

The workers bizarrely left the man in the body bag as they took him back to the nursing home in the back of the hearse. 

The person filming can be heard calling the incident a disgrace for human life, amid backlash of Chinas strict rules on lockdowns.

Authorities later assured that the man was receiving treatment in hospital and was in a stable condition.

They added that the doctor who signed the death certificate had been struck off and four senior officials in the Putuo government would be fired.

Hes alive! one worked exclaimed. Hes alive, I saw it, hes alive. Dont cover him any more

Members of the Blue Sky Rescue Team disinfect a residential community during the phased lockdown in Shanghai

Prisoner starts snoring while being prepared for autopsy

Gonzalo Montoya Jiménez was serving time for robbery in the maximum security wing of Asturias Central Penitentiary in Spain when he was found unresponsive in his cell in 2018.

Three different doctors checked over the body, still sat up right in a chair, and all came to the conclusion that he had died.

How he had died was still unclear. Jiménez was reported to have felt ill the day before his dramatic death and resurrection.

The body was at first taken to a morgue before being prepared for autopsy.

Jiménez was placed in a body bag and left in a cold storage room. His skin was marked with a scalpel ahead of the procedure.

It was at this point the physicians made a horrifying realisation.

The body in the bag stirred, and began to snore.

"Forensic doctors began to hear noises coming from inside the bag. Montoya was not dead. Quite the opposite," El Español reported at the time.

When they open the bag, they found the prisoner still alive.

Jiménez was promptly put back in an ambulance under close guard and taken to a hospital to recover.

A spokesperson for the Spanish Prison Service said it was not clear at the moment exactly why this occurred. 

Gonzalo was serving time in the maximum security wing of Asturias Central Penitentiary

Mother knocks on her coffin while being prepared for funeral

The family of Bella Montoya were awaiting her funeral when she suddenly showed signs of life.

The 76-year-old was declared dead after suffering a stoke at the Martín Icaza Hospital in Los Rios, Ecuador in June 2023.

Doctors said she had suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest due to suffering from an unspecified cerebrovascular disease, noting she had hypertension and heart problems.

She spent four hours inside a coffin and was being prepared to have her clothes changed a funeral home when her family noticed something was off.

My mother started to move the left hand, open her eyes, the mouth, her son, Gilbert Balberán, told El Universo.

Balberán leapt to help his mother as she tried to breathe, supporting her head and left arm before paramedics arrived to take over.

She was promptly placed on a stretcher and taken back to the Martín Icaza Hospital, where she was placed in intensive care.

Bella Montoya, who suffered from heart problems, is said to have suffered a stroke Friday hours before she was hospitalized and declared dead by a doctor at Martín Icaza Hospital in Los Rios, Ecuador

Balberán placed tried to support Bella Montoyas body after they noticed she was moving

Man found alive in morgue freezer six hours after motorcycle accident 

A man was found still alive in the freezer of a morgue some six hours after being delivered following a horror motorcycle accident in 2021.

Srikesh Kumar, 45, was in critical condition after being hit by a motorcycle in Moradabad, east of New Delhi, and declared dead at a private facility.

He was later taken to a government hospital and placed inside a freezer until his relatives arrived the next morning.

When a police team and his family came over to initiate the paperwork for the autopsy, he was found alive, Rajendra Kumar, the hospitals medical superintendent, told AFP.

This is nothing short of a miracle, he said.

Kumar said the man was still comatose when he was found.

It was only when his sister-in-law noticed he was still moving that they realised he was still breathing.

Hospital chief Dr. Shiv Singh insisted that emergency medical officer at the private facility had examined the man multiple times and found no heartbeat. 

The error echoed a similar story from 2020, when a bed-ridden 74-year-old man in India was wrongly pronounced dead by relatives and left in cold storage for 20 hours before an employee of the freezer company noticed he was still moving.

Srikesh Kumar, 45, appears to move in the video to the amazement of his family after spending six hours in a morgue fridge and being declared dead the night before

Man found alive in morgue - before dying from hypothermia days later 

José Ribeiro was just 62 when he was pronounced dead by a doctor at Goiano Central-North State Hospital in Uruacu, Brazil, on November 29.

He had been living with advanced tongue cancer, although it was not immediately clear why doctors believed him to be dead.

Ribeiro was placed in a body bag and stored inside of a refrigerator in the hospitals morgue for five hours after the declaration.

But it was only when he was taken to a funeral home that staff noticed his eyes were open and he was struggling to breathe.

Aparecida and her family were alerted of the incident and rushed to the funeral parlor before rushing her brother to Rialma Municipal Hospital.

It is unbelievable what has happened. My brother spent five hours in a plastic bag, chilled, Aparecida said. It was horrible, such a situation is unacceptable. 

Sadly, Ribeiros condition continued to worsen and he died two days later, his sister Aparecida Ribeiro told local outlets.

José Ribeiro is carried to a cemetery in the Brazilian city of Rialma on Thursday, hours after the 62-year-old man died from hypothermia

Ribeiro, who had been hospitalised with tongue cancer, was wrongly declared dead by a doctor at Goiano Central-North State Hospital in Uruacu, Goiá on November 29, 2022

Woman found gasping for air in body bag after being declared dead

A woman from Iowa was found gasping for air in a body bag after being declared dead in January last year.

The unnamed woman, who had early-onset dementia, anxiety and depression, was declared dead at the Glen Oaks Alzheimers Special Care Centre in Urbandale after becoming unresponsive.

The 66-year-old was soon placed in a zipped body bag and taken to the Ankeny Funeral Home and Crematory.

But when funeral home staff unzipped the bag, they found the woman was miraculously still alive.

Her chest was still moving and she was gasping for air, they said, as reported in a legal note.

The home called 911 and paramedics found a pulse and shallow breath.

A staff member from the care centre had reported the woman was not breathing and had no pulse while on a 12-hour shift.

The nurse said she had been checking on the woman every hour on the hour throughout the night to administer morphine and lorazepam as ordered for comfort. 

When she stopped responding, she continued to assess the resident for some five minutes before determining that she had died.

She was formally declared dead some 90 minutes later - and about two hours before being found alive.

Staff at the Ankeny Funeral Home (pictured) were shocked to find the woman was still alive