Buried Alive!

Man Buried Alive, Antoine Wiertz

Darkness! It started with darkness and silence. Silence punctuated only by the sound of shuddering breath. 

Movement was painfully stiff, muscle screamed as he tried to sit up but something solid prevented him. 

Fumbling blindly he tried to paint a picture of his surroundings with his hands, his fingertips brushed against the rough wood imprisoning him. 

A box? 

No a coffin! 

Greetings Everyone!  Ever heard of getting buried alive? Sounds scary right?? 

So what would have happened of Marjorie Halcrow Erskine of Scotland who was indeed buried alive in a shallow grave by a sexton, who intended on returning later to steal her jewelry? Well, when he tried to cut off her finger to snatch a ring, she awoke. 

What a nice warm, ahem I mean, chilling experience for the sexton though. By the way, the poor guy died instantly from fright, talk about 'godspeed'.(pun intended!)

Let’s see another case, a bit into more modern times... One day in 1994, Mildred C. Clarke of Albany, New York was found by her landlord, sprawled on her living room floor, “cold and motionless”. Neither paramedics nor the Albany County Coroner found a pulse, heartbeat or signs of breath. 

The coroner declared her dead and Mildred was zipped into a body bag and taken to the morgue. She was left for an hour and a half in a chilled room meant to keep corpses fresh. 

A morgue attendant wheeled her out of the cooler for a trip to the funeral home but noticed the body bag was rising up and down. He listened closely and heard breathing, then unzipped the bag and found a very much alive Mildred. 

So what is this happening? Thinking Zombies? Oh no! You wouldn't want to contradict the Second Law of Thermodynamics, would'ya?

Enter, Lazarus Syndrome,or rather what I would prefer to call, 

"auto resuscitation after failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation"
😋

In simple words, it's the reestablishment of blood circulation after repeated failed attempts of resuscitation techniques such as CPR. 

For most of the part of human history, a person was declared legally dead on cessation of pulse and futile attempts of it's revival; however to add a point, nowadays it is very much possible to keep the cardiopulmonary system working with the help of ventilators. But in such cases the person might as well as be "brain dead" i.e. zero brain function observable nor revivable.

One of the most common death-mimicking conditions is hypothermia, which lowers the body’s temperature and slows heart and respiratory rates. 

Also, stroke victims and those who overdose on drugs such as epinephrine can have pulses so slow enough to be undetectable. 

By chance if an utterly unlucky person happens to have such a condition and well especially in the past, they would sure have a damnably good time after they wake up. 

Premature burial experienced it’s ‘Golden Time’ during the Victorian era, when death was a deadly business. 

Not only did one have to worry about grave robbers digging you up and carting you off for dissection, you had to worry about being properly dead in the first place. 

But the Victorians had real reason to fear being buried alive, death in those days was not as simple to certify as it is today and several cases of premature burial were reported not only in the 19th century but in previous centuries as well. 

People suffered of Taphephobia i.e. an abnormal or irrational fear of being buried alive. 
 (Greek; taphos, means tomb/grave and phobos means fear)

In this era there is still possibility of a person to be buried alive though very rare. Even if the ‘Deceased’ person is brought to the church for burial… they will be killed when injected with embalming fluid- a mixture of fluid chemicals used to preserve the dead body... (formaldehyde smiles)

The News is that at least one won’t be buried alive...😁


                                                                                                                                          1st July 2015, 
                                                                                                                                   4th November 2018