In 1915, Essie Dunbar was mistakenly declared dead after falling ill. Doctors believed she had passed, and a funeral was arranged in her honor.
Her body was placed in a coffin, and the burial ceremony was nearly finished when her sister, arriving late, begged to see her one last time. The officials agreed and opened the coffin—only for Essie to suddenly sit up and smile.
The mourners were gripped with terror. Believing they had just witnessed the dead return to life, many panicked and ran, convinced it was something supernatural.
In truth, Essie had been buried alive due to a tragic medical misdiagnosis. Far from the afterlife, she went on to live for another 47 years, eventually passing away in 1962.
Her astonishing story remains one of the most remarkable examples of premature burial and medical error, a haunting reminder of how fallible early 20th-century medicine could be.
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