‘Dead’ man comes alive on autopsy table

BANGALORE: A man in Bagalkot, who was declared dead and about to undergo an autopsy, surprisingly came to life again.

A taluk health officer in Bagalkot in northern Karnataka could not believe his eyes when he touched the corpse lying in front of him for postmortem. Later, when he called a doctor it was confirmed that the man presumed ‘dead’ is very much alive.

A 27-year-old man named Shankar Gombi fell victim to a road accident in Mahalingapur on February 27. He was admitted to a private hospital in the Belagavi district. After being under Mahalingapur Government Hospital in Bagalkot observation for two days, the doctors declared him brain dead and asked the family to take his body.

Soon after, the body was sent to the government hospital in Mahalingapur for postmortem.

Dr Galgali said, “While coming to the hospital, I saw many banners and cut-outs announcing the death of this man. I knew the face of this man but did not expect that he would be alive.”

“I started the postmortem and saw that the person’s hair was standing, which meant that his body was responding. Then I tested with a pulse-oximeter and also felt the heartbeat. I removed him from the ventilator and waited for a while. I was surprised to see that he was shaking his hand. I then called the family and then the patient was admitted to another private hospital,”  Dr Galgali added.

The doctor said, “The family has told us that once the ventilator is removed, the person will be formally being declared dead. Therefore, they had also started preparations for his funeral. His friends had also given information about the man’s death on social media.”

On Tuesday morning, Doctor Galgali came to know that there were improvements in Gombi and that his body parts were also functioning properly. The doctor said that he has done more than 400 postmortems in his 18-year career, but never come across a case like this.