|
|
|
Go  |
Post |
Find |
Notify |
|
Reply |
|
Admin |
New PM! |
Diamond Enthusiast
|
Yes, living burial has occurred in the past. In todays medical community, comas and other unresponsive episodes are monitored and managed but back then, persons were thought to be dead and were rapidly buried before they began to decay. Then, when the person 'woke up' they were buried. This occurred with enough frequency, people began to get paranoid (wouldn't YOU??  ) that this would happen to them so their burial sites were outfitted with air flow, water, food and bells, etc to summon help in case the unthinkable happened. quote: In the late 16th century, the body of Matthew Wall was being borne to his grave in Braughing, England. One of the pallbearers tripped, causing the others to drop the coffin, thus reviving the dear departed. Wall lived on for several more years, dying in 1595. He celebrated his 'resurrection' every year.
In the early 17th century, Marjorie Elphinstone died and was buried in Ardtannies, Scotland. When grave robbers attempted to steal the jewelry interred with her, the deceased surprised the heck out of them by groaning. The robbers fled for their lives, and Elphinstone revived, walked home, and outlived her husband by six years.
Marjorie Halcrow Erskine of Chirnside, Scotland, died in 1674 and was buried in a shallow grave by a sexton intent upon returning later to steal her jewelry. While the light-fingered sexton was trying to cut off her finger to retrieve a ring, she awoke. In her additional years of life after her first burial, she went on to give birth to and raise two sons. No one knows what happened to the sexton.
The 17th century saw a number of premature burials. Collapse and apparent death were not uncommon during epidemics of plague, cholera, and smallpox. From contemporary medical sources, William Tebb compiled 219 instances of narrow escape from premature burial, 149 cases of actual premature burial, 10 cases in which bodies were accidentally dissected before death, and 2 cases in which embalming was started on the not-yet-dead.
Some instances were especially heartbreaking. In the 1850s, a young girl visiting Edisto Island, South Carolina, died of diphtheria. She was quickly interred in a local family's mausoleum because it was feared the disease might otherwise spread. When one of the family's sons died in the Civil War, the tomb was opened to admit him. A tiny skeleton was found on the floor just behind the door.
Source |
| |
|
Diamond Enthusiast
|
quote: is it possible to tell from a corpse whether the person had been alive when buried
Do you remember the case of Jessica Lunsford? She was a 9 year old who was abducted Feb 2005 and later found March 19, 2005. Autopsy reports showed that she had been buried alive.
crime.about.comusatoday.comCNN TranscriptAs DG mentions, given the right circumstances forensics can show if a body was alive when buried. Petechial hemorrhage will show if death was asphixiation. Also, if there is evidence that there was free flowing blood from a wound would be a clue. The dead don't bleed. |
| |
| Posts: 9192 | Location: Atlanta, GA, USA | Registered: 06-03-02 | |
|
Diamond
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
of the Year
|
The following excerpt is from one of my family's history pages and I thought it might be interesting in this thread. "Cordelia" is my great-grandmother. "Sarah and Howard Parker, Cordelia's older sister and her new husband, left after marriage from Iowa by wagon train for California , however he got sick on the trip and appeared dead. They made a casket and during the funeral services someone noticed that his eyelid moved. He later said he couldn't move at all or speak to let them know he was alive, but he was scared to death of being buried alive and then was able to move a little. He lived another twenty years in good health. They settled in Penryn , California." full pageGives you the chills, what? Dwight |
| |
| Posts: 4332 | Location: Anchorage, AK | Registered: 06-05-02 | |
|
Site
Administrator
|
Alexander the Great may have been entombed alive, dying in the coffin of typhoid fever. Alexander claimed to be a god, and, supporters point to the fact, noted at the time, that his body remained uncorrupt after death. Post mortem decay did not set in. After the third day, he was placed in his coffin. There were also reports that several days elapsed before he could be buried, and signs of decomposition were notably absent.
Now, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine report that Alexander probably died of typhoid fever.
The medical team, led by Dr David W Oldach, said there have been many possible causes of death, such as alcohol poisoning (which may explain why the body remained preserved), arsenic poisoning, an inflammation of the pancreas, or malaria (which was common in the area).
Unreliable sources
But the team said descriptions of what happened do not precisely fit those causes, although the group acknowledged that the surviving accounts of his death are not completely reliable, since they were written two or three centuries after the events.
The disease that seems to fit best is typhoid fever, which comes from contaminated food or drinking water, or is spread by poor hygiene. Before antibiotics, it was often fatal.
Oldach said the sharp abdominal pain is a vital clue because it probably means the disease perforated his intestine, hastening death.
The illness may also have struck down Alexander's male lover the year before, the researchers said.
Shallow breathing
Oldach and his team said typhoid fever can cause a paralysis that spreads from the feet toward the head. The shallow breathing it causes can make a person appear dead. That may be why Alexander's body did not appear to compose, according to Oldach. - BBCI am sure that should be "decompose" in that last line. |
| |
| Posts: 17257 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02 | |
|
 | Please Wait. Your request is being processed... |
© 2002-2008 AnswerPool.com
Visit DiscussionPool.com! |
