A 50-year-old woman in India who had been declared brain-dead with no chance of recovery by doctors miraculously regained consciousness when the ambulance carrying her hit a large pothole, the country’s media reported.

The woman, Vineeta Shukla, a judiciary worker from Pilibhit, in India’s Uttar Pradesh state, fainted on March 22 while doing housework and was rushed to a local hospital.

Due to the severity of her condition, she was referred to a more advanced medical facility in Bareilly, where doctors performed a series of tests and ultimately declared her brain-dead.

After discussing with the doctors, Vineeta’s husband learnt that there was no hope that she would ever regain consciousness.

This was because her brainstem reflexes were absent and her consciousness level was at three points on the Glasgow Coma Scale, compared to the 15 points of a fully awake person.

The woman’s family decided to have her discharged and began making funeral preparations.

On March 24, as the ambulance was driving on the motorway near Hafizganj, it hit a large pothole, causing a powerful jerk.

Vineeta’s husband immediately noticed that she had begun breathing normally right after the jolt, and her condition immediately improved from there.

After she was taken back to the hospital, Vineeta Shukla baffled doctors who had previously given her no chance of recovery.

She has since returned home, is awake and talking to her family members, who were preparing her last rites just a few hours earlier.

The jolt from hitting the pothole is credited for shocking Vineeta back into consciousness, but many on social media are pointing out that this is a one-in-a-million anomaly, a freak occurrence that doesn’t make up for the thousands of lives claimed by pothole-related accidents in India.

Between 2020 and 2024, reports said potholes caused 9,438 deaths in the country and Vineeta’s miraculous recovery is quite an unusual one. (Sunday Tribune)