Buried Alive?

Today I wanted to talk to you about Alexander the Great, or more specifically his death.  Alexander the Great died suddenly at age 32. That in itself is pretty suspicious but it gets worse.

When Alexander stopped moving or speaking, those around him thought that he was dead. But when his body failed to decompose after six days people went a bit nuts. His loyal followers went so far as to proclaim him a God. But there is a darker theory knocking around the scientific community.

Alexander wasn’t dead.  

He had suffered a sudden onslaught of paralysis.

It is said that after a drinking spree, Alexander felt unwell (shock). He also felt a sudden pain in his back, as though he had been hit by a spear. Shortly after he became unable to move and then unable to speak. He was pronounced dead.

Dr. Katherine Hall of the University of Otago in New Zealand said in 2019 that she suspected he suffered from Guillain-Barré Syndrome. This is a very rare and serious condition that affects the nerves. Mainly the feet, hands and limbs, and can cause problems such as numbness, weakness and pain. It affects people of all ages but it is more common in adults and males.

But how could he be pronounced dead when he was paralysed? Surely his heart was still beating? Well, in the fourth century B.C., doctors didn’t use a patient’s pulse to diagnose death — they used breath. When paralysed you don’t breathe very much at all. So it could be easy to think he wasn’t breathing and was unresponsive.

Dr Hall thinks Alexander was pronounced dead a full six days before he actually died. Hence his body being so well preserved.

Thus Alexander the Great could have well witnessed his own funeral and could have been buried alive.

I say could because there’s no way to actually prove this, his body has never been found, and the main account of his death (Plutarch) was penned centuries after his actual death etc, but it’s a bloody horrendous thing to contemplate.