MOURNERS at a funeral were left reeling when the “dead man” they’d gathered to bury suddenly walked in and announced: “I’m alive!”
The 22-year-old stunned friends and relatives as he crashed his own wake in Argentina – leaving everyone wondering who was in the coffin.
The 22-year-old stunned friends and relatives as he crashed his own wake in Argentina
Everyone was left wondering who was in the coffin
He showed up moments before burial
The mix-up began when a young man was mown down by a sugarcane truck last week.
Police suspected suicide, but prosecutors called it negligent homicide and ordered an autopsy.
The very next day, a woman turned up at a police station claiming the victim was her son.
She identified the body by his clothes and some features – and officers handed it over for burial.
But as mourners wept over the coffin at the weekend, her real son suddenly staggered in – alive, well, and apparently fresh off a several-day bender in Alderetes, north of Córdoba.
His shock return caused uproar at the service.
The man, who hasn’t been named, admitted he had “no idea” what was going on at home.
Police later confirmed the true victim was Maximiliano Enrique Acosta, 28, from nearby Delfín Gallo.
His body was eventually returned to his family, who finally laid him to rest on Tuesday.
But even that was bungled. His furious brother Hernán said: “Everything was wrong from the beginning.
“First, they handed over the body without proper identification. Then they made me go to the morgue twice. We shouldn’t have to go through this after everything we suffered.”
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has now launched an investigation into how the catalogue of blunders unfolded.
It comes after a man in India appeared to “come back from the dead” – after being declared deceased by doctors and sent for cremation.
Rohitash Kumar, 25, had been pronounced dead at a Rajasthan hospital, placed in a mortuary freezer for more than two hours, and taken to a temple pyre for his last rites when he suddenly began breathing again.
The deaf and mute man, who lived in a shelter in Jhunjhunu, had been rushed to Rajkiya Bhagwan Das Khetan (BDK) District Hospital with a fever last Thursday.
Doctors declared him dead and, without carrying out a postmortem, signed off paperwork before sending his body for cremation.
But as the funeral ritual began at Panch Dev temple, horrified mourners watched Kumar’s body twitch and his chest heave.
Eyewitness Subhash Poonia said: “He started moving his body. We were shocked and started running away.”
Kumar was rushed back to BDK Hospital and admitted to intensive care, where medics now say his condition is stable.
The extraordinary blunder has sparked fury in India, with critics blasting hospital staff for “gross negligence.”
Jhunjhunu Police Superintendent Sharad Chouodhary confirmed Kumar had no relatives present when he was first admitted, and that hospital staff handed his body directly to authorities.
District Collector Ramavtar Meena announced that three doctors – Yogesh Jhkhar, Navneet Meel, and Sandeep Prachar – had been suspended.
He said: “Pending enquiry, we have suspended the three doctors for gross misconduct and dereliction of their duties.”
An investigation is now underway into how a man declared dead ended up breathing on his own funeral pyre.
The true victim was Maximiliano Enrique Acosta, 28, from nearby Delfín Gallo.
The man, who hasn’t been named, admitted he had “no idea” what was going on at home 
