A 65-year-old woman in Thailand was discovered alive inside her coffin as her brother was transporting her to a temple for cremation.
The woman, from Phitsanulok province, was being driven by her brother to the Wat Rat Prakhong Tham Buddhist temple in Nonthaburi province on Sunday, Nov. 23, when the incident occurred, according to the Associated Press.
Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, said the brother reported hearing a knocking sound coming from the coffin during the journey.
Surprised, Pairat said he asked them to open the coffin — and that was when they saw the woman alive inside.
Wat Rat Prakhong Tham later posted a video on its Facebook page showing the woman moving parts of her body while lying in a white coffin in the back of a pickup truck, according to the AP.
“I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin,” Pairat recalled. “She must have been knocking for quite some time.”
According to Pairat, the woman’s brother said she had appeared to stop breathing two days earlier after being bedridden for two years. Believing she had died, he placed her in the coffin and drove roughly 300 miles to a hospital in Bangkok.
At the hospital, he told staff that his sister had expressed a wish to donate her organs, Pairat said. However, doctors declined because there was no official death certificate.
The brother then brought her to the temple, which offers free cremation services, but was again turned away because he lacked the required documentation.
As Pairat discussed with the brother how to obtain a death certificate, he said they heard knocking from the coffin again. When they opened it, they realized the woman was still alive.
She was subsequently taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, according to the AP. The temple will cover her medical expenses, Pairat said, citing the abbot’s decision.
