A 78-year-old Mississippi man who had been pronounced dead two hours earlier shocked a mortician when he began to move his leg.
Walter “Smowball” Williams ‘died’ at home just after midnight last Wednesday (February 27) and was taken away in a body bag after being pronounced dead later in the day by local coroner Dexter Howard while grief-stricken family members comforted each other. Within hours, Snowball’s family received a call from the funeral director indicating that Walter was alive. According to daughter Martha Lewis: “Something wasn’t right; his leg started to move.” Walter had tried to kick his way out of the body bag.
Summoned to the University of Mississippi Hospital immediately, family members found Snowball breathing and apparently in better health than immediately before his ‘death’. When a pause occurred in a conversation the family were having around his bed, Snowball blurted out: “What y’all stop talkin’ for?”
Asked about the ‘Mississippi Miracle’ daughter Ms Lewis said: “I don’t know how much longer he’s gonna grace us and bless us with his presence, but Halleluiah, we thank Him right now!”
Coroner Howard described the events as “just a miracle” but doctors’ more measured response is that Snowball’s pacemaker probably stopped working and subsequently restarted, causing his heart to respond.
