A 70 year old man recently bounced back to life
after spending over 30 hours in a mortuary in Makurdi, the Benue state
capital.According to Vanguard newspaper, Doctors at a private hospital in the town had on Saturday,
August 26, 2015, certified Amos Otene dead at 4. 30 am and promptly
covered him up and wheeled him into the mortuary, awaiting instructions
from members of the family for embalming.
As further proof
that Otene was dead, the doctors extracted the requisite body fluid and
other substances from the corpse, for post mortem examination which was
to ultimately reveal the cause of death.
According to the
family, the hospital admitted Otene on Friday August 25 after he
complained of severe toothache which had persisted for several days. As
the news of Otene’s death spread, family members and other sympathisers
continued to throng the hospital.
On Sunday, when
one of his children, Eche, who lives in Lafia visited, he was taken to
the mortuary to confirm that his father had indeed passed on. According
to Eche, at about 1.39 pm, “the morticians at the hospital wheeled out
the trolley containing my father and unveiled the face for me to see.
It
was in this process that the supposedly he started raising his right
hand and all of us fled towards the reception area of the mortuary. From
a safe distance we watched as my father lifted himself and sat on the
bed and that was about seven minutes later. One of the attendants
eventually summoned enough courage and approached my father who fell
back on the trolley.”
Eche said that the doctors ordered that the
resurrected man be readmitted in the ward where some medication was
administered and he was placed on fresh round of drips. He remained in
the ward till Tuesday when the doctors carried out series of tests and
certified Otene fit for discharge.
In what may well be an apparent case of near-death experience, Otene said that,
“what I remember is that I was in a vehicle and traveled a long
distance.When I got there, there were many people and there was a lot of
celebration and merriment and the people were happy. But they did not
allow me to stay with them. They said I should go back and repeat my
work.
I am much better now and I thank God for everything and I also
owe many thanks to the hospital for taking care of me and my family
members who have been worried. I hope they will continue to be with me
until I am completely free from this stress.”
certified dead |
Otene’s wife, Elizabeth, was not aware that her husband had ‘passed’.
Her children did not inform her because, according to them, she is
hypertensive and they feared that informing her would have caused
additional damage.
According to Elizabeth,
“they did not tell me that my husband died, they only told me after the
resurrection and I think it is a miracle. I ask God to forgive me for
doubting when they told me that he died and resurrected.
After his
resurrection he developed high appetite for food and he has been
demanding for food. Eche, the son said,”this is God’s miracle. We
glorify God’s name. God is merciful and we can’t thank Him enough for
keeping my father alive. What if they had embarmed him? They did not
because they were waiting for us. And when I visited the man came alive.
It’s God’s work.”
But medical experts say Otene could not have died in the first place and
that the question of resurrection was out of the question. The only
explanation, according to a Makurdi-based medical practitioner, Dr. Ameh