Hindu pilgrim wakes, averts his autopsy

Denverpost, Aug 7 2008:

NEW DELHI, India — An Indian pilgrim who fainted in a stampede that killed 150 people woke up in a morgue among bodies lined up for autopsies, local media reported Wednesday.

Mange Ram, 19, lost consciousness Sunday at a Hindu temple in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh during a stampede triggered by the rumors of a landslide.

Thousands of worshipers at a religious festival, which began Saturday, rushed back down a path leading to the temple, colliding with crowds on their way up the mountain. When railings gave way, scores of people fell to their deaths, and dozens of others were trampled.

"When I woke up, I was in the middle of a row of bodies waiting for postmortem," Ram told the Times of India.

"Towering over me the doctors and nursing staff . . . looked dazed. They must have been surprised to see a dead man come alive like that. But when was I dead?" the newspaper quoted him as saying.

A series of checks is usually carried out to verify whether victims are alive or dead, but a witness told the Times of India that "people were dumped quite haphazardly into trucks without following any procedure or checking if they were alive."

"No medical examinations were held and anybody found unconscious was assumed dead," the paper said.