- He was pronounced dead at his home hours before
- Funeral workers were preparing to embalm him
- Found him trying to kick his way out of the body bag
- Thought that his pacemaker briefly stopped working
- The coroner described it as a ‘miracle’ to police
A man who woke up in a body bag at a funeral home after being pronounced legally dead in what the coroner described a ‘miracle’.
Walter Williams from Lexington, Mississippi, was zipped up in a body bag while funeral home workers prepared to embalm him, but instead they soon found him kicking to get out, according to WAPT.
The coroner suspected that Williams’ pacemaker had likely stopped for a brief period and then started up again .
The man was found at the Porter and Sons Funeral Home, on Yazoo Street.
Walter Williams woke up and surprised many people.
“I asked the coroner what happened, and the only thing he could say is that it’s a miracle,” Holmes County Sheriff Willie March said.
“I stood there and watched them put him in a body bag and zipped it up,” Williams’ nephew, Eddie Hester, said.
The coroner said he checked Williams’ pulse about 9 p.m. Wednesday and pronounced him dead at his home in Lexington.
“That was at 10:30, and at 2:30, my cousin called me and said, ‘Not yet,’ and I said, ‘What you mean not yet?’ He said, ‘Daddy still here,'” Hester said.
After the coroner helped move Williams to Porter and Sons Funeral Home, workers were getting ready to embalm him, but that’s when he started to move.
Byron Porter said it’s the first time he’s ever seen anything like it. Williams’ was inside the zipped-up body bag and kicking to get out.
Paramedics rushed Williams him to a hospital, where family members said Thursday night that he’s happy to be alive.
“I don’t know how long he’s going to be here, but I know he’s back right now. That’s all that matters,” Hester said.
The coroner said Williams’ pacemaker may have stopped working and then started up again.
Family members said Williams is a fighter. He’s been a long-time farmer and worked for the school board.
