'Dead' man, 94, resumes breathing at funeral home

El Paso Times ^ | January 2, 2004 | Times wire reports

[FITZ]

CLOVIS, N.M. -- A man who was declared dead at a Clovis hospital and sent to a funeral home began breathing as workers prepared to embalm him, the owner of the funeral home said.

Felipe Padilla, 94, of Clovis stopped breathing Wednesday morning and was sent to Muffley Funeral Home. An employee of the funeral home called 911 a short time later when he realized Padilla was breathing.

Paramedics hooked Padilla to IVs and a respirator and returned him to the hospital, where he died a short time later.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

What does the last line in your post have to do with the story?

[Sidebar Moderator]

I removed the extraneous line from the article

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Thanks for clearing that smell up. LOL

[AxelPaulsenJr]

However, in an ironic sort of way. Would one be suprised to find bad smells in the embalming room of a mortuary?

LOL

[Dallas59]

Are they sure this time?

[Lockbar]

"Paramedics hooked Padilla to IVs and a respirator and returned him to the hospital, where he died a short time later."


So I guess this means that they took him back to the same funeral home? "Hi Mr. Padilla, nice to see you again!" I know, sick, but I....could....not...resist.

[FITZ]

You'd think with all our advances in medicine they wouldn't make a mistake like this in the hospital.

[dagnabbit]

Pining for the fjords

[Judith Anne]

Not unheard of. Many people think there is a sharp line between physical life and death, but it can be blurry, in my experience...not always, but sometimes. In addition, after someone is "dead" electrical activity in the heart can continue for a while, and can be seen on an EKG, even though the heart is no longer beating.

My practice is to act as though someone is still living, even as I prepare a body for transport, and I will talk in a loving way as I remove O2, tubes, IVs, etc., because you just never know.

On the other hand, I had a cancer patient who announced that she was going to die shortly after midnight, and she did, fully conscious, aware, and talking. She asked me to sit with her, because she didn't want to be alone.

She said, "Can you smell the flowers? [there were none in the room.] Oh, look! The flowers are wonderful! Oh, it's just beautiful! Look! It's Jesus--He's here!"

I got chills all over, tears came to my eyes. I could neither see nor smell any flowers, but she was so joyous...I said, "Tell him I said hello, tell Him I love Him" and she was gone...no doubt about it, as clearly as black and white--pupils fixed, heart stopped, no respiration, nothing.

I post this for what it's worth. To me, I will always remember her, she was so much at peace and so joyful.

[Rebelbase]

I think the removed, extraneous words have a sort of relevence to the article:

"Bad smell was odorant used in natural gas"

[waterstraat]

She said, "Can you smell the flowers? [there were none in the room.] Oh, look! The flowers are wonderful! Oh, it's just beautiful! Look! It's Jesus--He's here!"

Interesting. I take it, that she was a Christian?

[AxelPaulsenJr]

LOL, I do too!

I had this mental image of the corpse passing gas. LOL, and grosss!

[Flightdeck]

Remember the little girl recently who "died" in her swimming pool and two hours later spontaneously started breathing again. Unfortunately I heard an update that she has brain damage. Also, I read about a guy who was hit by lightning and several hours later he woke up on a gurney with a sheet over his head; he had been dead for a while. This guy was actually conscious, and the only thing he could do to alert people was blow out his mouth and cause the sheet to move. That happened in the eighties and he is still alive as far as I know.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I have always said that those who believe that God doesn't exist, find out if they are correct or not, at the moment of their death.

[Judith Anne]

The "religious preference" spot was marked "none." She didn't pray in my presence, I don't know what she did when she was alone.

She just said that she was going to die shortly after midnight and she didn't want to be alone. Patients very rarely say things like that, although I'm convinced they know, and she did have advanced cancer.

[looscnnn]

"Bad smell was odorant used in natural gas" Maybe it was from the funeral worker filling his pants, it said that he "called 911 a short time later when he realized Padilla was breathing." He probably needed to clean himself up first. Can't blame him. No matter how long someone does that job, it has to freak someone out to realize that someone that is dead comes back to life.

[Judith Anne]

Yes, I remember hearing about both of those.

[AnAmericanMother]

< sniff. >

"Blessed Assurance . . . "

What a privilege to be there.

[Judith Anne]

I've never come across a dying person who absolutely denied the existence of God...but there's always a first time, I guess.