A Woman in Thailand Believed to Be Dead Woke up in Her Coffin

A 65-year-old Thai woman has just experienced everyone’s worst nightmare: waking up in a coffin.

On Sunday, the Wat Rat Prakong Tham Buddhist Temple outside of Bangkok posted a video of a white, open coffin in the back of a pickup truck. Inside is an extremely thin woman dressed in an orange skirt and a white top, clearly moving her arms as bystanders watch in shock. Emergency workers then move her onto a gurney and load her into an ambulance.

A knock from the coffin

Her brother had brought the coffin to the temple for cremation on Monday, Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, told The Associated Press. The brother claimed that the woman, who’d been bedridden for over a year, became unresponsive and seemed to stop breathing two days ago, the manager told the outlet.

And so he put her in a coffin and drove 300 miles (500 kilometers) to Bangkok. The woman had wanted to donate her organs to a hospital there, but said hospital (thankfully) couldn’t accept the offer without an official death certificate.

The Wat Rat Prakong Tham Buddhist Temple provides free cremation services, but they also require an official death certificate, Soodthoop told the outlet. It was while he was explaining to the brother how to secure the document that they heard what must have sounded absolutely surreal—a knock coming from within the coffin.

“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,†Soodthoop told the AP. “I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time.â€

Paid medical services

Soodthoop must have been a very cool and collected man to have felt just a bit surprised. The woman went to the hospital, where the temple’s abbot said Wat Rat Prakong Tham would pay for her medical services.

Yesterday the temple shared another post, according to which Wichaya Wechayansringsarn, acting director of Bang Yai Hospital, said that the woman arrived at the hospital lethargic but conscious. Her condition improved after hospital admission, but she may need close monitoring for around a week, barring the discovery of further medical issues.

Soodthoop and Wat Rat Prakong Tham abbot Phra Kittiwachirathada visited the woman at the hospital. According to Kittiwachirathada, as cited by the post, his visit was to bring encouragement and reassurance of the temple’s support, including covering medical costs.

One thing’s for certain—that first conversation between the woman and her brother is going to be extremely awkward.