In 1890, several European and American newspapers ran an amazing story about the premature burial of a pregnant woman. The story emanated from Pester Lloyd, a German-language newspaper in the Austro-Hungarian empire. It told of events near Szegedin, approximately 100 kilometres south of Budapest.

According to the London Standard‘s retelling:

“A married woman named Gonda, belonging to a village near Szegedin, was reported to have died while under the hands of the midwife. The doctor granted a certificate of death and the woman was interred. Her husband, however, doubting whether she had really died, caused the body to be exhumed. On opening the coffin the woman was found lying on her side, with a newborn child dead beside her. An investigation into the case has been instituted.”

It may be that this was a case of ‘coffin birth’: the post-mortem expulsion of a foetus during decomposition. Wikipedia, of course, has a page on this phenomenon.

Source: Pester Lloyd, Budapest, September 12th 1890; The Standard, London, September 20th 1890. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.