A woman narrowly escaped cremation and the donation of her organs after her family mistakenly presumed she was dead.
The 65-year-old woman from Thailand, named Chonthirat Sakulkoo, was transported in a coffin for several hundred miles to Wat Rat Prakhong Tham Buddhist temple for a cremation ceremony. Her brother, Mongkol Sakulkoo, believed she had ceased breathing two days earlier.
Chonthirat had been bedridden for approximately two years, and her health had recently declined, leading to her being unresponsive, according to her brother.
Assuming she had passed away, Mongkol decided to fulfill her final wishes by taking her body 300 miles from their home province of Phitsanulok to Bangkok.
Reports indicate that he attempted to take her to a hospital where she had expressed a desire for organ donation as part of her last wishes.
However, upon reaching the hospital, the staff declined to accept her body due to the lack of an official death certificate.
After being refused at the hospital, Mongkol proceeded to drive her to Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, where free cremation services are offered.
Due to the absence of a death certificate, the temple also refused to perform the cremation, as they required the document to confirm her death had been officially recorded.
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While the temple manager, Pairat Soodthoop, was explaining the process of obtaining a death certificate, a faint knock was heard coming from inside the coffin.
Soodthoop recounted, “I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled. I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin.
“She must have been knocking for quite some time.”
Once it was discovered that Chonthirat was still alive, she received an assessment from temple staff and was then transported to the hospital.
The Thai newspaper, Thairath, reported that she was taken to Bang Yai Hospital for treatment, where she was diagnosed with hypoglycemia, a condition in which blood sugar levels drop too low.
Soodthoop mentioned that the temple also offered to cover her medical expenses.
When asked about his feelings upon realizing his sister was still alive, Mr. Sakulkoo reportedly expressed indifference, according to Thairath.
In a related incident from 2023, a woman in Ecuador, who had been pronounced dead in a hospital, was found to be alive after her family heard knocking from inside her coffin during her wake.