When loved ones die, there are multiple ways that people choose to immortalize them. The most common way, of course, is to bury the deceased friend or relative inside of a coffin with a tombstone resting on the surface. Another unique process, which is relatively new, involves using the body as fertilizer to grow a tree, symbolizing rebirth and eternal life. More commonly, people choose to cremate their loved ones, often storing their ashes in an urn or some type of locket. (RELATED: You won’t believe what this Washington group proposes we do with the dead.)

No one would ever expect the cremation process to go wrong; typically, it’s very smooth and peaceful. Unfortunately, for 24-year-old Rachna Sisodia, that may not have been the case.

Rachna Sisodia was a student who was declared dead on February 25 at Sharda hospital in northern India. She died as a result of a lung infection. (RELATED: Learn how to treat respiratory tract infections with everyday foods and spices.)

Sisodia’s husband, 23-year-old Devesh Chaudhary, drove her body to a funeral pyre two hours away to begin the cremation process. However, police quickly arrived on the scene and pulled Sisodia’s body out of the fire after it was revealed that she might have still been alive.

A post-mortem found that Rachna had ash in her respiratory tract, and a second post-mortem revealed that the cause of death was “shock caused by being burnt alive.” Clearly, a mistake was made at the hospital when Rachna was falsely pronounced dead.

A hospital spokesperson explained what had happened to the Hindustan Times. “This happens when someone is burnt alive,” the spokesperson said. “The particles go inside with the breath. If a person is dead, such particles cannot reach the lungs and windpipe. So the doctors concluded that the woman was burnt alive on the pyre.” Medics at Sharda hospital strongly disagreed with the explanation, insisting that Sisodia did in fact die at the hospital.

The doctor who conducted the post-mortem, Dr. Pankaj Mishra, told the Times of India that he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that the body itself was actually Sisodia’s, due to the fact that it was burnt to the point where it was nearly unidentifiable.

Devesh Chaudhary told the media that he thinks he is being framed for his wife’s murder.

Even though the medics at Sharda hospital insist that the 24-year-old was officially dead at the hospital, and even though Dr. Mishra was unable to say for certain whether the body he performed the post-mortem on was Sisodia’s, the mere thought of a young woman being accidentally burnt alive is a terrifying one. Regardless of how she died, though, may her family find comfort and may she rest in peace.

Sources:

Telegraph.co.uk

TimesOfIndia.IndiaTimes.com