In a spine-chilling near-fatal accident, a woman in Berhampur, India, whose life was deemed extinguished, defied the grave as she miraculously awoke just moments before her scheduled cremation. Bujji Aamma, 52, suffered grievous burns in a devastating house fire on 1 February 2024. Despite her critical state, financial constraints shackled her to a home with limited medical resources. Trapped in a desperate situation, Aamma’s eyes remained shut, and her family, unable to afford relocation to another hospital, presumed she had died.

According to news outlets, Aamma’s husband, Sibaram Palo, accepted the tragic reality and made arrangements for her final journey to the crematorium. The preparations were made, including a hearse, where Palo explained how “[we] thought she was dead and informed others in the locality to arrange a hearse van to carry the body to the cremation ground.”

However, fate clearly had other plans. Just as the final rites were about to commence, Aamma, against all conceivable odds, opened her eyes, shattering the certainty of her demise.

The shocking revelation unfolded as K Chiranjibi, a witness to this extraordinary occurrence, recounted the surreal moment: “Initially, we were scared as we had never seen such an incident, though we had heard some stories.”

The hearse, initially summoned to ferry what was believed to be Aamma’s lifeless body, was hastily called back. In a testament to the unpredictability of life, Aamma, breathing and living, was returned home in the very hearse that had been prepared to transport her mortal remains.

While such astonishing events are undeniably rare, they are not isolated incidents. In May 2007, in what can only be described as a medical anomaly, Judith Johnson, aged 61, experienced cardiac arrest at Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, Delaware, US. Despite the administration of multiple medicines and synchronised shocks, Johnson failed to regain a pulse and was officially declared dead at 8:34 PM. However, in a surprising twist, the woman was later found to be alive and breathing. Similarly, a 76-year-old woman in Ecuador stunned her relatives by coming back to life at her own funeral…

Doctors also refer to this phenomenon as the Lazarus phenomenon or Lazarus syndrome. It is characterised by a delayed return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after CPR has been stopped, indicating an unexpected revival of cardiac activity in individuals declared dead following a cardiac arrest.