Dead wrong

In the BBC documentary series Frozen Planet, viewers watch as a woolly bear caterpillar reacts to a drop in the Arctic temperature. It first freezes, then its heart stops and so too its breathing. Then as the Arctic begins to thaw, something amazing happens. “The caterpillar rises from the dead,” comments narrator David Attenborough; and we watch as it starts to move and eat its first meal in months. Something akin to this just happened in China, although to a human. According to Modern Express, residents of Liulou Village in Guangxi were astounded last month by an incident involving 95 year-old Li Xiufen. After a fall she’d been diagnosed with a concussion and told to rest. On the morning of February 17 her neighbours found the old woman was no longer breathing, and, though still warm, assumed she’d died. Two days later she was placed in a coffin in her home along with some burning incense and a bowl of rice. The morning before her scheduled burial, neighbours again entered her home and were stunned to see Mrs Li sitting on the floor, very much alive and making porridge. The elderly woman told them she’d woken at dawn and felt hungry.

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