Random Real Zombie Attacks That Actually Happened (16 items)

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  (#9) Woman Revived After Being Clinically Dead Over Three Hours

  In very specific circumstances, it is possible for a clinically dead individual to be revived and make a full recovery, effectively being reanimated à la Frankenstein or countless other zombie narratives.  

  Such was the case with Anna Bågenholm, who in 1999 lost control while skiing in the Kjølen mountain range and plummeted through a thin layer of ice covering a stream. Friends pulled Bågenholm from the freezing waters several minutes later.  

  Medical personnel rushed her to the hospital, but eventually Bågenholm's heart stopped. However, the head of emergency medical treatment at the hospital, Mads Gilbert, believed the frozen temperatures had actually kept Bågenholm alive. David Cox of the Guardian explains:  

  "While lowering the body temperature will stop the heart, it also reduces the oxygen demand of the body and, in particular, the brain cells. If the vital organs have been sufficiently cooled before the cardiac arrest occurs, then the inevitable cell death from the lack of circulation will be postponed, buying emergency services an extra time window to try and save the person's life."  

  And this was exactly the circumstance in Bågenholm's case. After over three hours without a heartbeat or any vital signs, she began to slowly revive. The woman went on to make a full recovery, proving that sometimes, death is truly not the end.
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  (#2) The Infamous Miami Cannibal Attack

  This story was big news back in May 2012, especially given the eerie footage of the incident that made the rounds on the Internet. Miami resident Rudy Eugene stripped naked and attacked homeless man Ronald Poppo, eating about 80% of the man's face. When police arrived at the scene, they were forced to open fire on the belligerent Eugene. He took far more bullets than his body should have been able to withstand before finally dropping.  

  It was originally theorized that Eugene had ingested "bath salts" or even PCP, but toxicology reports revealed only trace amounts of marijuana in his system, leaving the explanation for his zombie-like attack on Poppo a mystery.
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  (#4) Woman Returns from the Grave in Catatonic State

  This case was observed by researchers in Haiti sometime in 1996 or 1997. From i09: 

  "FI was around 30 years old when she died after a short febrile illness and was buried by her family the same day in the family tomb next to her house. 3 years later she was recognised by a friend wandering near the village; her mother confirmed her identity by a facial mark, as did her 7-year-old daughter, her siblings, other villagers, her husband, and the local priest. She appeared mute and unable to feed herself. Her parents accused her husband of zombifying her (he was jealous of her after she had had an affair). After a local court authorised the opening of her tomb, which was full of stones, her parents were undecided whether to take her home and she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital in Port-au Prince..."  

  It was later determined the woman likely suffered from catatonic schizophrenia. However, just how she managed to emerge from her tomb and wander home isn't explained.
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  (#3) Two-Year-Old Sits Up in Coffin, Asks for Water, Dies Again

  Kevin Santos was pronounced dead at a hospital in his hometown of Belem in Brazil. The two-year-old was placed in an airtight body bag for three hours while his family made preparations for his funeral.  

  During the wake, family members noticed the boy moving. Santos then sat up and asked his father for a glass of water. The ecstatic family was let down, however, when only seconds later the boy fell over again. He was rushed to hospital and declared dead a second time.
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  (#15) Crazed Cannibal Loves "Rare Steak"

  In April 2016, Chad Feeney, a man living in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, West Mids in England, had the top part of his ear bitten off by a man at the YMCA where he had been living.  

  Feeney told police that he came into the commons room after a night of drinking and struck up a conversation with the man. They got onto the topic of food, at which point the man told Feeney his favorite food was rare steak. The man then leapt onto Feeney and began munching on his ear, the sound of which sounded, to Feeney, like someone eating lettuce.  

  He further stated, "There was a massive chomp and then there was blood everywhere. He had blood all over his mouth and was laughing manically to himself."  

  The man was apparently evicted from the YMCA before police arrived, left to wander the streets, in search of his next meal...
  
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  (#5) Clairvius Narcisse and the Proof of Zombification

  Clairvius Narcisse died on May 2, 1962 after admitting himself to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelle, a town in the Artibonite Valley of Haiti. He had been suffering from a plethora of ailments, but no direct cause for his symptoms could be determined.  

  Eighteen years later, in 1980, his sister Angelina saw Narcisse in a market place. He recounted the memories of his own "death," including being buried alive. He had been placed into a death-like state by a bokor, or sorcerer, and after being dug up he was whisked away to a plantation to serve as a zombified laborer. He escaped after two years of slavery and wandered the Haitian countryside, only willing to return to his village when his brother, whom he believed to have made the deal with the bokor that turned Narcisse into a zombie, had finally passed away.  

  A researcher named Wade Davis later investigated Narcisse's case, and claimed to have discovered the key to zombification, namely the use of the datura plant, which, according to Patrick D. Hahn of Biology Online, "contains the hallucinogens atropine and scopolamine, and induces delirium, confusion, psychosis, and complete amnesia." It could never be conclusively determined, however, whether or not this substance was actually used on Narcisse. 
  

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