A severely burned Indian woman who was thought to be dead reportedly woke up in a hearse moments before she was going to be cremated.

Bujji Aamma, 52, of Berhampur, suffered burns over half her body in a Feb. 1 house fire and was treated at MKCG Medical Collage and Hospital, the Times of India reported.

She took a turn for the worse after being released, but her hard-up family could not afford to take her to another hospital, the outlet said.

On Monday, Aamma did not open her eyes and did not show signs of breathing.

“We thought she was dead and informed others in the locality to arrange a hearse van to carry the body to the cremation ground,” her husband, Sibaram Palo, 54, told the paper.

One woman, K Chiranjibi, 50, who accompanied the woman in the hearse, said they had almost completed assembling the funeral pyre when they made the shocking discovery.

“Just then, Bujji opened her eyes and responded to our calls,” Chiranjibi told the outlet, adding that locals had chipped in for the cost of cremation.

“Initially we were scared as we had never seen such an incident, though we had heard some stories,” she said.

Hearse driver Khetrabashi Sahu said he was called to take the much-alive woman back to her home in the same vehicle.

A source at the cremation center told the outlet that local residents do not need to have a death certificate to perform the last rites of a relative, but that it is required for outsiders.

Incidents of people found breathing after being declared dead are rare but not unheard of.

In February 2023, an 82-year-old woman also seemingly rose from the dead on Long Island after she was pronounced dead at the Water’s Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson.

 After being transported to the O.B. Davis Funeral Home in Miller Place, the woman was found to be breathing.

Funeral home workers made the shocking discovery and the unidentified octogenarian was then brought to an area hospital, Suffolk County police have said. It was unclear if the woman was declared dead by mistake or if she experienced a medical episode that could have contributed to her apparent resurrection.

The case was referred to the state Attorney General’s Office for an investigation. Its status was not immediately available.

The previous week, an Iowa nursing home was fined $10,000 for similarly pronouncing a hospice patient dead and shipping her to a nursing home when she was actually alive.

A funeral home employee unzipped the body bag the 66-year-old woman was inside and found her “gasping for air.” The staffer called 911 and the woman was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was confirmed to be breathing, but unresponsive.

She was returned to hospice and died two days later surrounded by family members.