A 70 year old man might have cheated death when he bounced back to life after spending over 30 hours in a mortuary in Makurdi, the Benue state capital. Doctors at a private hospital in the town had on Saturday, August 26, 2015, certified Amos Otene dead at 4. 30 am and promptly covered him up and wheeled him into the mortuary, awaiting instructions from members of the family for embarment.
As further proof that Otene was dead, the doctors extracted the requisite body fluid and other substances from the corpse, for post mortem examination which was to ultimately reveal the cause of death.
According to the family, the hospital admitted Otene on Friday August 25 after he complained of severe toothache which had persisted for several days. As the news of Otene’s death spread, family members and other sympathisers continued to throng the hospital.
On Sunday, when one of his children, Eche, who lives in Lafia visited, he was taken to the mortuary to confirm that his father had indeed passed on. According to Eche, at about 1.39 pm, “the morticians at the hospital wheeled out the trolley containing my father and unveiled the face for me to see.
It was in this process that the supposedly he started raising his right hand and all of us fled towards the reception area of the mortuary. From a safe distance we watched as my father lifted himself and sat on the bed and that was about seven minutes later. One of the attendants eventually summoned enough courage and approached my father who fell back on the trolley.”
Eche said that the doctors ordered that the resurrected man be readmitted in the ward where some medication was administered and he was placed on fresh round of drips. He remained in the ward till Tuesday when the doctors carried out series of tests and certified Otene fit for discharge.
Vanguard
