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Topics: News, World News, Thailand
Kit Roberts
A woman narrowly avoided being cremated and having her organs donated after her family mistakenly thought that she had died.
The 65-year-old Thai woman, who was identified as Chonthirat Sakulkoo, was driven for hundreds of miles in a coffin to Wat Rat Prakhong Tham Buddhist temple for cremation after her brother, Mongkol Sakulkoo, said she'd appeared to have stopped breathing two days prior.
According to Sakulkoo, she had been bedridden for about two years before her health had further deteriorated and she had become unresponsive.
Believing that she had died, Chonthirat's brother had taken her to Bangkok, 300 miles away from their home province of Phitsanulok, to carry out her last wishes for her body.
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According to reports, he took her to a hospital where she had previously said that she wanted her organs to be donated, in accordance with his sister's last wishes.
But once they arrived at the hospital, the staff refused to accept her body as the brother did not have an official death certificate.
After being turned away at the hospital, he then drove her to the Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, which offers a free cremation service.
The temple would also not carry out the cremation due to the absence of a death certificate, which they would need to ensure that her death had been properly registered.
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The temple manager, Pairat Soodthoop, was explaining to the brother how to obtain the death certificate when they heard a faint knock from inside the coffin.
Soodthoop said: "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."
After discovering that Chonthirat was alive, she was assessed by temple staff before she was taken to the hospital.
According to the Thai newspaper, Thairath, she was sent to Bang Yai Hospital, where she was treated for hypoglycemia, which is a condition where a person's blood sugar levels fall too low.
Soodthoop said that the temple would also cover her medical expenses.
Thairath further reported that when asked how he felt upon discovering that his sister was still alive, Mr Sakulkoo replied that he was indifferent.
In 2023, a similar incident occurred when a woman in Ecuador who'd been declared dead in a hospital turned out to be alive when her family heard a knocking in her coffin at her wake.