74-Year-Old Tamil Nadu Man Dies After Being Locked Alive in Corpse Freezer for 24 Hours
16-October-2020

In a bizarre incident, a 74-year-old man who had been rescued from a freezer in Tamil Nadu after spending over 24 hours inside the box alive, died on Friday. The man had been stuffed in the freezer, meant for corpses, while still alive after a private hospital in Salem district declared him dead.

Critically-ill Balasubramaniakumar was recently discharged from the hospital and his family members were waiting for him to breathe his last. Balasubramaniakumar's younger brother Saravanan, 70, had hired the freezer box on Monday. The agency that provided the freezer box was scheduled to take the box back on Tuesday.

However, on Tuesday, the official from the agency got a shock when he saw Balasubramaniakumar alive and in a semi-conscious state with his hands and legs tied, in the box with the lid closed.

Police were alerted and Balasubramaniakumar was taken to a government hospital after miraculously managing to stay alive in the frozen box for over 24-hours. Despite treatment, Balasubramaniakumar breathed his last on Friday. Speaking to BBC, a doctor at the hospital said that the septuagenarian had been brought in while he was in a semi-conscious state and that he died due to complications in his lungs.

Upon being questioned at the time when Balasubramaniakumar was rescued alive from the freezer, his brother Saravanan had said that his brother's soul was yet to leave his body. As per reports, a case has been registered against the victim's family for negligence.

The family has insisted, however, that they had been given a "signed letter" by the doctor at the private hospital in which Balasubramaniakumar was receiving treatment that the man had indeed died.

The extent of the hospital's role in the incident is as yet unclear.

This is not the first time when negligence has resulted in the death of a patient at a Tamil Nadu hospital. In January this year, a 22-year-old woman died during childbirth in Tirupathur, leading her family members to accuse the hospital of negligence.

More recently, the deaths of two Covid-19 patients was tied up to negligence on the part of a hospital in Tirrupur. Kin of the deceased claim that the hospital lost power supply for 40 minutes after an electric wire was erroneously cut during nearby construction work, leading to fatal results at the hospital.