Karnataka teen presumed dead and taken for funeral, wakes up on the way

On Sunday, Ningappa and Manjula, residents of Managundi village in Karnataka’s Dharwad had the shock of their lives, when their 17-year-old son who was presumed dead, woke up while he was being taken for the funeral.

Kumar Marewad, a construction labourer and a school dropout, is now undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital, reports Basavaraj Kattimani for The Times of India.

The report states that Kumar was bitten by a stray dog a month ago, and developed high fever sometime last week.

Following this, Kumar was admitted at a hospital and put on ventilator as his health began to deteriorate. The doctors reportedly told Kumar’s family that the infection in his body had spread and that Kumar was not likely to survive if the life support was removed.

Taking a call on this, the family decided to discontinue medical treatment and shift Kumar back home.

“We had decided to take Kumar home after doctors told us his chances of survival were bleak once taken off the ventilator,“ Kumar's brother-in-law Sharanappa Naikar told TOI. 

However, on reaching home, Kumar’s family and relatives reportedly noticed no body movement and presumed that Kumar had breathed his last. Based on this assumption, the family made arrangements for his funeral.

After all the arrangements were made, Kumar’s family carried his “body” to perform the last rites. But the group had hardly moved two kilometers away from their home, when Kumar opened his eyes. He moved his arms and legs and started breathing heavily, states the report.

Alarmed, the family rushed him to a hospital on Gokul road.

Dr Mahesh Neelakhantannavar told TOI that Kumar has been put on ventilator and that he suffers from meningoencephalitis, an infection caused due to dog bite.