A 78-year-old man from Jackson Mississippi was pronounced dead by a coroner and a nurse ... too early. In fact a whole two weeks too early.
It was late February. Suffering from end-stage cardiovascular disease, 78-year-old farmer Walter Williams was in trouble. The coroner and a nurse were on duty at his residential hospice. He lapsed into unconsciousness. A check of his pulse gave the medical staff nothing and he was pronounced dead. His nephew remembers seeing them close the body bag.
Five hours later. About to be embalmed some five hours later, his body bag began to stir. The kicking becomes stronger and the undertakers rush to open the bag. Williams is alive. He is raced to a hospital.
Then in the early hours of March 13 he leaves his family for good, a full two weeks after his reprieve from death,.
Doctors say Williams suffered from extremely low blood sugar, a condition - which combined with his medications - may have caused his pulse to slow so much that the medical staff were unable to detect it, leading to the error.
