Photographer saves life of man considered dead, after hearing wheezing sounds

Shivers ran down Tomy Thomas’s spine as he realised that the ‘deceased’ man he was supposed to photograph had produced low quivering sounds.

“When I entered the house, the man was found lying face down on the floor. Apparently, he had injured his head after he hit the corner of a bed, blood could be seen clotted on the head wound. Since the light in the room was not adequate to click photos, I leaned over the man to turn on the light switch which was on the wall right next to where he was lying. It was then that I heard a feeble voice,” the 48-year-old photographer from Kerala told The NewsMinute.

He immediately alerted the police officer who was in the house and an ambulance was called.

Thomas, who is based in Ernakulam, recalls that in 25 years of working with the police on similar assignments, he has never had an experience this bizarre.

The man was in the same position he was discovered when Thomas walked in. After hearing the wheezing sound, Thomas and the police officer turned him over on his back. They detected a faint heartbeat and immediately called an ambulance.

The police said that the man, identified as Sivadasan, apparently had fallen down due to high blood pressure and as a result hit his head. He lived alone in a rented house at Manalimukku near Kalamassery, an industrial district in Kochi.

He was found by his employer who had gone to check on him as Sivadasan didn’t turn up at work for three days. “Since he didn’t open the door upon knocking, his colleague looked through an open window to see Sivadasan lying on the floor. He was the one who alerted the police saying that Sivadasan was lying dead in his house,” an official from the Edathala Police Station said.

The neighbours rushed to the spot after being informed of the incident however, they were afraid to break the door down and go near Sivadasan due to Covid-19 fear, said the police.

Police officials broke down the door after arriving but did not go near Sivadasan as they didn’t have protective gear.

Thomas was called on Sunday to photograph the body by the police who were preparing an inquest report on the incident.

The Palakkad-native has been moved to Jubilee Mission Hospital and is undergoing treatment in the neurology intensive care unit.