# Could you dig yourself out of a grave? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2004, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309 "2004-11-30T10:17:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/21 "2004-12-01T19:39:39Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Am I the only one that get seeeriously creeped out by the thought of being buried alive? Poe apparently was realy scarred of the idea. A number of his stories invovle pre-mature entombment in them, though only one is intentional as far as I know. Actually, it seemed be a big thing among some 19th century authors. _Les Miserables_ has a part where ValJean is almost buried alive on accident. I believe there was also something for a while about coffins with phones in them. Personally, this thread has been creeping me out, though I’m more worried about somebody deliberatly burying me alive then accidently doing so(Once they embalm you, you’re dead. Unless they enbalm you with worchester sauce, then you’re undead). ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/22 "2004-12-02T14:11:12Z")
Never. Put a piece of wood on the ground. Push against it from the top. You’ll never break the wood because you can’t move it. Even if you could, your reward would be clawing your way through several feet of earth. To sum up- I have grave doubts and if a movie used this, I’d say the plot was pretty shallow. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mermaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/23 "2004-12-02T14:54:36Z")
My mother in law used to tell the story of a family member who died during the 1918 flu epidemic and was buried rather hastily in the family plot on their land. Several years later her children bought several plots in a newer cemetary and decided to have her body disinterred and moved to the new plot. Because several people had been buried at the same and to ensure that they had the right body, the coffin was opened. They found the wood on the inner lid of the coffin was scratched and the deceased had dried blood on her dress, broken fingernails, and handfulls of hair in her fingers. The conclusion was that she was indeed buried alive.:eek: So if that’s true, at least one very sick woman was NOT able to get out of her own grave and it’s the stuff of which nightmares are made. If it’s a family urban legend, its a pretty damn good one. I have actually stood at this person’s grave while different people pointed out “oh yeah, that was Aunt Millie, so sad. Did you know she was buried alive?” At any rate, it is verifiable that my MIL’s entire family was very ill and she lost two siblings and a few other family members at the same time so this story is at least possible. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/24 "2004-12-02T18:17:38Z")
**BobLibDem** – Was this an accident, or did you mean to pull off a double pun ? (Well, not a pun exactly, a double-entendre. Is there a better word for a play on two meanings of a single word?) > [@](#): > > if a movie used this, I’d say the plot was pretty shallow. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/25 "2004-12-02T18:37:07Z")
Thanks a lot **Mermaid**. I don’t care what GWB says, I’m getting a flu shot. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/26 "2004-12-02T19:52:52Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > **BobLibDem** – Was this an accident, or did you mean to pull off a double pun ? > (Well, not a pun exactly, a double-entendre. Is there a better word for a play on two meanings of a single word?) I always mean my puns. I can’t resist. Yep that was a two-fer in one sentence. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/27 "2004-12-02T20:57:35Z")
They put you in a nice casket and put the casket in a substantial concrete vault. Even if you could get out of the casket, which you can’t because of little clearance to open the lid, the vault is concrete and very heavy in addition the the overburder of dirt. The movies are fantasies far removed from reality! Don’t believe every thing you read in the papers and very little of what you see in the movies or on TV. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/28 "2004-12-02T23:24:41Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I always mean my puns. I can’t resist. Yep that was a two-fer in one sentence. I count three. Grave, plot, and shallow. ---
**Author:** ![ridealong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@ridealong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ridealong)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/29 "2004-12-02T23:38:18Z")
Man Falls asleep in Coffin - Buried Alive! [http://www.themudpile.com/mbank05/ct5/ct514.htm](http://www.themudpile.com/mbank05/ct5/ct514.htm) At first i thought this wasa joke. But i don’t think so: [http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/problem\_detail.asp?SDID=6084:1875](http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/problem_detail.asp?SDID=6084:1875) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/30 "2004-12-03T08:50:04Z")
> [@The Mermaid](#): > > My mother in law used to tell the story of a family member who died during the 1918 flu epidemic and was buried rather hastily in the family plot on their land. Several years later her children bought several plots in a newer cemetary and decided to have her body disinterred and moved to the new plot. > > Because several people had been buried at the same and to ensure that they had the right body, the coffin was opened. They found the wood on the inner lid of the coffin was scratched and the deceased had dried blood on her dress, broken fingernails, and handfulls of hair in her fingers. The conclusion was that she was indeed buried alive.:eek: > > So if that’s true, at least one very sick woman was NOT able to get out of her own grave and it’s the stuff of which nightmares are made. If it’s a family urban legend, its a pretty damn good one. I have actually stood at this person’s grave while different people pointed out “oh yeah, that was Aunt Millie, so sad. Did you know she was buried alive?” > > At any rate, it is verifiable that my MIL’s entire family was very ill and she lost two siblings and a few other family members at the same time so this story is at least possible. I obviously have no idea if your family’s account of Aunt Millie is real or not but I have read very similar accounts in books on death and the supernatural, i.e. vampires. Granted, as these were books on the undead, I tend to doubt the veracity of the stories in them but I have no problem imagining that scenario, especially before the mid-twentieth century when embalming became the norm. In the US, at least. ---
**Author:** ![ridealong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@ridealong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ridealong)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/31 "2004-12-03T09:16:34Z")
A medical question: in the time before things like brain-wave monitors, there were still basic tests of death. What kinds of illnesses/conditions would allow someone to “wake up” after having no detectable heartbeat, respiration or response to pain? And isn’t a truly dead body cool to the touch? How quickly were people getting buried in these places where accidental burial alive was suspected? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/32 "2004-12-03T09:26:50Z")
In the books I mentioned in my previous post, the example most often (always?) given was the Bubonic Plague of Europe when people were collected by the dozens as they didn’t want to take any chances of dead bodies further infecting the living. ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/33 "2004-12-03T10:49:19Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > Actually, if anything I’d say this charming discussion of being buried alive is causing me to give cremation more consideration. At least that gets it over quickly (I would think). > > Although the best bet seems to be donating your body to medicine. You’d probably end up as a sample cadaver for some med students to disect. I only hope they’ll have done their homework and will know how to tell a live body from a dead one. Theres a long process for the cadavers before they get anywhere near med students, ie embalming. I don’t think they use formaldehyde anymore, but I think its fairly toxic. They don’t get to practice on fresh bodies, although someone who actually is a Med student may prove me wrong. We used to visit LGI Morgue when I was at Art College, to study musculature etc, and the guy there explained theres another consideration, of stringently making sure that the cadaver will be somewhere where it won’t be recognized, ie young Billy goes to Med School and gets to practice chopping up his Grandmother who died last year, that kind of thing. If you’ve managed to get through all this and you’re still kicking, well yo. You’re _nails._ ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/34 "2004-12-03T11:32:22Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > I count three. Grave, plot, and shallow. Yeah but there were only two in one sentence. Thanks for noticing. A lot of people wouldn’t be caught dead undertaking such cheap humor as many people might think it a bit stiff. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/35 "2004-12-03T13:39:31Z")
[Hijack] Here’s another bit of dead person trivia. When my grandfather recently died, my mom did a fair bit of worrying about whether he should get “the shot.” Apparently. because jewish custom does not permit embalming, there is more of a fear that a relative might be mistaken for dead. In order to avoid this terrible consequence, the bereaved are offered the opportunity to make sure their relative is dead before burial–by killing them. I couldn’t help snickering at the irony.[/Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/36 "2004-12-03T14:00:50Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Am I the only one that get seeeriously creeped out by the thought of being buried alive? "I mean one thinks of it like being alive in a box, one keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is dead . . . which should make all the difference . . . shouldn’t it ? I mean, you’d never know you were in a box, would you ? It would be just like being asleep in a box. Not that I’d like to sleep in a box, mind you, not without any air - you’d wake up dead, for a start and then where would you be? Apart from inside a box. That’s the bit I don’t like, frankly. That’s why I don’t think of it… Because you’d be helpless, wouldn’t you ? Stuffed in a box like that, I mean you’d be in there for ever. Even taking into account the fact that you’re dead, it isn’t a pleasant thought. Especially if you’re dead, really . . . ask yourself, if I asked you straight off - I’m going to stuff you in this box now, would you rather be alive or dead? Naturally, you’d prefer to be alive. Life in a box is better than no life at all. I expect You’d have a chance at least. You could lie there thinking- well, at least I’m not dead! " -Tom Stoppard ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mermaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/37 "2004-12-03T16:12:06Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I obviously have no idea if your family’s account of Aunt Millie is real or not but I have read very similar accounts in books on death and the supernatural, i.e. vampires. > > Granted, as these were books on the undead, I tend to doubt the veracity of the stories in them but I have no problem imagining that scenario, especially before the mid-twentieth century when embalming became the norm. In the US, at least. Being an RN, I have a hard time believing a story like this as well. But this was a rural area, the family was very poor and literally everyone in the area was ill. The lone doctor in the area was overworked and probably ill himself. The custom of the time was to bury the dead in a family plot on the land and embalming was optional. When a person is in shock their temperature will drop dramatically and they will feel very cold to the touch. I took care of a patient with a core temp of 91 and he felt very cold to me. Considering this was in the winter and the home may have had only a woodburning stove, she may have been suffering from hypothermia as well. But I heard this story from several family members at different times including someone who claimed to have been there when the coffin was opened. So as awful and unbelieveable as it sounds, I’m inclined to think that it could have and probably did happen. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/38 "2004-12-03T16:31:49Z")
Without wanting to cast unnecessary doubt or disrespect upon your contribution, **Mermaid** , I feel it’s only fair to say that the story, as presented, has a few elements that do sound very UL-ish - particularly the reason for exhuming and opening the coffin - there’s just something about the whole thing that I can’t quite put my finger on that makes it _sound_ dubious. However, I’m sure that sort of thing will have happened and I suppose there will have been cases where a buried-alive scenario happened and was not detected when a burial was moved, perhaps if the coffin was moved without opening. As I said, I don’t wish to be at all unkind or in any way assert that the account IS an UL, only to point out that it _sounds quite a bit like_ one. Back to the OP though; think of it this way: -Live burials have almost certainly taken place and have possibly been rather more numerous in the past than we would wish to believe. -Coffins and burial procedures in the past have probably not always been as rigorous as they are today. -There do not seem to be any cases of people digging themselves out of their own grave. I would therefore conclude, in addition to any logistical reasoning we can offer as regards the difficulties, that the simple absence of accounts of anyone digging their way to the surface, is fairly safely indicative that it is impossible to do so under any normal circumstances of burial. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mermaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/39 "2004-12-03T19:15:31Z")
Oh believe me I know the whole story just reeks of bullshit and I still have a hard time even starting to consider it believeable. But, nonetheless, my husband’s family seems to believe it so what can I do? The trouble with this and any good urban legend is there is just enough truth there to make it seem plausible. Yes there was a horrible flu epidemic going on. Yes several family members died. No, she was not embalmed. Sometimes it is very hard to distinguish between the dead and the living when one is lingering on the verge of both. Still it makes for a good story to tell whenever you’re at the cemetary standing near Aunt Millie’s grave. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309/40 "2004-12-04T00:25:35Z")
What about if one were a zombie, who didn’t have to eat or breathe? That’d make it a bit easier, if only a little. The concrete liner/vault is going to be a hell of a challange, though. Do those have “floors”? If so, the whole thing’s probably moot. (Moreso) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-dig-yourself-out-of-a-grave/277309.md?page=3)