Kelvin Santos, Brazilian Boy Pronounced Dead, Briefly Resurrected To Ask For Water

Kelvin Santos sat up in his coffin, resurrected and asked for water

A two year-old toddler who was pronounced dead, sat up on his coffin during his funeral and asked his father for a drink of water before laying lifeless in the coffin once again, according to Brazilian news sources.

Kelvin Santos was declared deceased after he stopped breathing due to complications from bronchial pneumonia at Aberlardo Santos Hospital in the northern Brazilian city of Belem. SBT, one of Brazil's leading TV networks, reported that while awaiting for the body to be released into family custody, the infant was placed in an airtight body bag for three hours.

The family gathered for an open-casket wake later that day, where, according to the two year-old's aunt, during which the infant repeatedly "appeared to move", before apparently sitting at up and asking his father for a drink of water.

The entire family thought they had witnessed a miracle and that Kelvin had in fact come back to life. But a few seconds later, the little boy's body fell back in the casket and the family couldn't revive him again.

The boy was rushed back to the hospital where he was pronounced dead a second time.

"Dead people don't just wake up and talk," said Antonio Santos, the boy's father according to The Daily Mail. "I'm determined to find out the truth."

A similar case occurred in Argentina earlier this year. Except this one had a happy ending.

Analia Bouter fell to her knees in shock after finding her baby alive in a coffin in the morgue nearly 12 hours after the girl had been declared dead. Her baby daughter, born three months premature, was pronounced a stillborn on April 3rd in a hospital in the city of Resistencia. The baby was put in a coffin and sent to a morgue.

Twelve hours later her parents were able to open the coffin to say their goodbyes. Instead, they found their baby was trembling.

"I moved the coverings aside and saw the tiny hand, with all five fingers, and I touched her hand and then uncovered her face," said the mother in to TeleNoticias, an international news channel, according to The Associated Press. "That's where I heard a tiny little cry. I told myself I was imagining it – it was my imagination. And then I stepped back and saw her waking up. It was as if she was saying `Mama, you came for me!'

A morgue worker picked her up and confirmed the baby was alive.

The family plans on suing the Hospital Perrando in the city of Resistencia for malpractice.

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Comments

[Ruth Boyle]

20 minutes ago ( 4:59 PM)

Yikes! What if he were slated to be cremated?

[A Ste Bunches]

19 hours ago (10:37 PM)

Yeah this is indicative of poor medical care, and the parents ought to own the hospital by the time their attorneys are finished. It's obvious the kid was in fact NOT dead. How horrifying for the parents. How do yo come back from something like that, to lose a child not once, but TWICE?

[tigerrcat18]

12:07 PM on 06/03/2013

I think that it was just the rate of how cells die. His brain cells probably were not dead yet even though he had stopped breathing.

[btr17]

09:42 PM on 04/23/2013

Please! Don't use the word TALE again. Ever.

[Mod Squad]

09:09 PM on 10/20/2012

Poor little guy. That is a very sad story.

[jcrum417]

03:37 PM on 06/22/2012

Do they not embalmed people before they put them in the coffin? If he was embalmed, then this is beyond explanation.

[Catherine CurrySelke]

02:01 PM on 07/19/2012

Not all countries embalm the dead and in the United States it is a tradition not a law no one has to be embalmed

[brinniewales]

05:05 PM on 08/03/2012

No, many Central and South American countries/cultures do not embalm bodies or employ the commonly used methods of North America. The funerals are generally held the day following the death.

[Puzzlr]

11:41 AM on 06/19/2012

Poor baby. Poor family. That has got to be the worse thing they could have seen.

[menjol]

12:30 PM on 06/28/2012

I can say that in some Brazilian regions the medical care is very very bad. Belém is in one of the poorest of those regions. Probably it was a medical error. I think they are very accustomed with children mortality.

[DefenderofSanity]

11:06 AM on 06/19/2012

A great tragedy. Sympathies to the family and hopefully the get compensation

[Alices Amanita]

03:46 AM on 06/15/2012

Wow...what a shame that a poor child died because the doctors were so quick to pronounce him dead...People just do not care about life anymore...

[kfoster323]

04:22 PM on 06/12/2012

Perhaps he's the newest prophet sent by God.

[Lechiffre]

03:02 PM on 06/12/2012

this story makes me so sad. what a cute baby.

[terriminx2]

08:39 AM on 06/12/2012

If that had happened here in the UK the medical profession would be under scrutiny right now. Obviously this poor kid was not dead but seriously unwell and requiring treatment which he didnt get. They should hang their heads in shame.

[phylliscooper1]

04:31 PM on 06/12/2012

So true, this was not a resurrection, but incompetent medical care. After reading this I could only think, what if? I am sure the family will be left with that thought forever, too. My heart goes out to this little child and his family.

[ctaylor1968]

04:25 PM on 06/11/2012

How sad.

[eek02]

01:53 PM on 06/11/2012

David Faisel wants everyone to know this is a TALE. You know, in case he hadn't said it enough yet.

[Cool Britannia]

06:46 PM on 06/11/2012

If he says it one more time, I may just have to go and open a vein. ;0)

[PhilEssex]

08:11 PM on 06/11/2012

Oohhhhhhh sounds a bit drastic lol ;o))

[Cool Britannia]

06:56 PM on 06/11/2012

About 300 times at last count,eek 02...;0)

[David Faisel]

08:36 PM on 06/10/2012

KELVIN SANTOS MYSTERY SOLVED: Cerebral Hypoxia, as the result of bronchial pneumonia. This is why Kelvin appeared dead, he was in a deep oxygen-deprived coma, a state of respiratory arrest which allowed him to survived in that cold airtight body bag. "Children have survived for long periods under icy water and have been revived from the state of respiratory arrest," is what a British Ambulance spokeswoman told Sky News after the rescue of a British boy, thought to be dead, from an icy pond. "It could be because their metabolism slows down much faster than ours..."

I have maintained this story was a TALE because no one comes back from final death--BUT KELVIN SANTOS WAS NOT IN FINAL DEATH.

When Kelvin Santos sat up in his coffin and asked for water, he was experiencing the FINAL burst in brain wave activity. This SPIKE in brain energy reanimated his comatose body one last time. Dr. Lakhmir Chawla of the George Washington University Medical Center told the Discovery Channel, "All the neurons are connected together and when they lose oxygen, their ability to maintain electrical potential goes away. I think when people lose all their blood flow, their neurons all fire in very close proximity and you get a big domino effect. We think this could explain the spike."

This may be a case of mistaken death. If Kelvin had been maintained on oxygen therapy and hydration for a LITTLE LONGER, he may still be with us.

[dadrev]

09:22 AM on 08/19/2012

That's possible he could have lived if he were kept on oxygen therapy and hydration for a little longer, but you don't know that for a fact. because if that's the case then how do you explain the ones that die everyday that were receiving oxygen therapy the moment they died. Why didn't it keep them alive? Your theory sounds sweet but it's 100% wrong. no man can explain death in it's deepest measure. Because there is no earthly class you can take on the subject of death in it's fullness. As humans all we can do with the knowledge and education we have learn is teach others our theory on the subject of death. and at the end of the day we still haven't even broken the first layer of death. all we know today is we live and we die. no one has ever found life or death inside of a human, have you? but, we all know it's there. yes we have advanced in our education over the many years we have been here on earth, life did not come into our bodies threw education or theories or man ideals. where ever life came from the first time it enter into our bodies, and whoever put life there in the beginning? couldn't he not put life back into our bodies the second time if he so chose? {and every human being is a witness that life and death do exist.} and that's a fact

[Jenna Brennan]

02:13 AM on 12/25/2012

Sigh. A lot of babble that doesn't say anything. The FACT is that Brazil is a third world country with horrible medical care. The probability of little Kelvin being alive if he'd had PROPER CARE is very high. No, no one can say anything with 100% certainty but they can definitely make a strong case for it.