In a bizarre incident, a 27-year-old man from Bagalkot district in Karnataka was believed to be dead by doctors, after sustaining a severe injury following a road accident on Saturday. However, he miraculously began to show signs of life before the doctor started conducting the postmortem on Monday.

Shankar Shanmukh Gombi, a youth from Mahalingapur in Bagalkot, met with a road accident where he was injured severely on his head. He was immediately admitted to a private hospital called in Belagavi and was receiving treatment. However, doctors said that he would not survive if taken off the ventilator, and suggested that he be taken home.

Following this, the family then took him to the government hospital at Mahalingapur for postmortem on Sunday and the family had already announced to all friends and family that he was dead.

Dr SS Galgali was called in by Shankar’s relatives to perform the postmortem. Speaking to TNM, Dr Galagali said “When I reached Mahalingapur, the ‘body’ hadn't yet arrived. When I called the family and asked if Shankar was breathing, they said that they didn't know, and were using the Ambu Bag (Bag Valve Mask used for artificial respiration) to help him breathe. When the ambulance carrying him arrived, a mob of nearly 2000 had gathered and they didn't even let doctors near Shankar!”

He further said, “The doctor on duty couldn't even check Shankar properly and the pulse oximeter indicated nothing. Seeing this, the uncontrollable mob took him to the postmortem room. I then rushed behind Mr Gombi to the post mortem room. There I asked the doctor to remove the Ambu Bag to check if he was dead. After a while he started to breathe on his own and started shaking his hands when I tapped it.”

Following this, Dr Galagali asked for Shankar to be admitted to the hospital for further treatment.