Premature Burial and How It May Be PreventedTebb, William
Science
Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented
Tebb, William
Burial, Premature
“Miss Markham about a fortnight ago complained of heart trouble, and
was treated by Dr. Howard. She grew weaker gradually, and on Sunday
morning apparently breathed her last, to the great grief of her
relatives, by whom she was much beloved. The doctor pronounced her
dead, and furnished the usual burial certificate.
“Undertaker Jones took charge of the funeral arrangements. On account
of the warm weather it was decided that the interment should take
place Tuesday, and in the morning Miss Markham was put in the coffin.
“After her relatives had taken the last look on what they supposed was
their beloved dead, the lid of the coffin was fastened on, and the
undertaker and his assistant took it to the hearse waiting outside.
As they approached the hearse a noise was heard, and the coffin was
put down and opened in short order. Behold! there was poor Eleanor
Markham lying on her back, her face white and contorted, and her eyes
distended.
“‘My God!’ she cried, in broken accents. ‘Where am I? You are burying
me alive.’ ‘Hush! child,’ said Dr. Howard, who happened to be present.
‘You are all right. It is a mistake easily rectified.’
“The girl was then taken into the house and placed on the bed,
when she fainted. While the doctor was administering stimulating
restoratives the trappings of woe were removed, and the hearse drove
away with more cheerful rapidity than a hearse was ever driven before.
* * * * *
“‘I was conscious all the time you were making preparations to bury
me,’ she said, ‘and the horror of my situation is altogether beyond
description. I could hear everything that was going on, even a whisper
outside the door, and although I exerted all my will-power, and made
a supreme physical effort to cry out, I was powerless.... At first I
fancied the bearers would not hear me, but when I felt one end of the
coffin falling suddenly, I knew that I had been heard.’
“Miss Markham is on a fair way to recovery, and what is strange is
that the flutterings of the heart that brought on her illness are
gone.”
From the _Echo_, January 18, 1895.
“MISTAKEN FOR DEAD--A WOMAN’S AWFUL EXPERIENCE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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