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NEW: "Every case I do is a learning experience," says coroner
Walter Williams was first pronounced dead on February 26
He began breathing in the embalming room
"I think he's gone this time," Williams' nephew tells CNN affiliate WAPT
Walter Williams, the Mississippi man who returned to life after being pronounced dead about two weeks ago, died Thursday.
He was 78.
“They came and got him again around 4:15 a.m.,” Williams’ nephew, Eddie Hester, told CNN affiliate WAPT. “I think he’s gone this time.”
CNN learned about the death from Holmes County, Mississippi, coroner Dexter Howard. He was the same man who first declared Williams dead on February 26.
“There was no pulse. He was lifeless,” the coroner said then.
He completed his paperwork, placed Williams in a body bag and transported him to a funeral home. There, something strange happened: The body bag moved.
Coroner on Williams’ revival two weeks ago: ‘I was in shock’
“We got him into the embalming room, and we noticed his legs beginning to move, like kicking,” Howard said last month. “He also began to do a little breathing.”
An ambulance was called. Paramedics arrived and hooked Williams up to monitors. Sure enough, he had a heartbeat, so they transported him to the Holmes County Hospital and Clinics.
Williams was released a few days later.
He died of natural causes, according to the coroner.
“Every case I do is a learning experience,” said Howard. When asked what the Williams case taught him, he replied: “That miracles can happen.”
CNN affiliate WJTV reported the longtime farmer, who family members called “Snowball,” died at his home.
“It was a two-week miracle for me, and I enjoyed every minute of it, and my family did too,” Hester told WAPT.
CNN’s Eliott C. McLaughlin and Suzanne Presto contributed to this report.