Friday, November 18, 2005

Tears save sick mother from cremation alive

From Reuters:
You Guoying, a 47-year-old migrant worker from southwestern Sichuan province, was taken for cremation by her husband and children in Taizhou, eastern Zhejiang province, where she worked, the China Youth Daily said.

Fortunately for You, the undertaker realized she was still alive when he saw her move and saw tears in her eyes, the newspaper said.
Freaky! This reminds me of an Edgar Allan Poe story.

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4 comments:

Kathleen Hite Babb said...

What puzzles me is wasn't there a doctor who determined the state of death? Is it customary to just take the supposedly dead directly to the crematorium? Maybe there wasn't a local doctor; or if so, one can assume that he didn't have the technology to make the correct determination.

It would be nice to have more information.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Frightening story on so many levels!! The world is going to hell in a handbasket!!! When people cannot afford medical help...Lord, what the hell are we all about??????????

utenzi said...

Michele sent me, Michelle.

Sorry about the extra post, Michelle. We both posted for Dave's site at the same time. I try to not hit the same blog twice.

The story about the brain damaged mom in China was scary indeed. It reminded me of seeral Poe stories, Fall of the House of Usher probably the most since I saw the movie also. The story insinuates that the family knew she wasn't dead--but that's hard to believe! What a freakin' bad way to die knowing that you're going to be burned alive...and having to wait for it to happen with not a thing you can do about it...

You're quite right, Michelle. That story's the very soul of Poe.

Michelle Pessoa said...

The whole thing sounds shady to me. Who pronounced her dead? A doctor that was incompetent or didn’t care? Or did her family turn a blind eye to the fact that she might be still alive up until they were “outed” by the undertaker?

There's a Poe story where a rich guy was scared he was going to be buried alive and he had an elaborate system set up to prevent that from happening. Of course it didn't work.

ARRGH! The name of the story is right on the tip of my tongue.