Man Dies to Set Record on Time Buried Alive

A man from Sri Lanka was buried alive recently in an attempt to try and set the record for the longest amount of time spent buried alive.  He died in his attempt.  Ironic, right?

46416Janaka Basnayake, a 24 year old Sri Lankan man, had family and friends help to bury him in a trench that was sealed over with wood and dirt in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo.  Local papers recorded that the trench was close to ten feet deep.

Around 9:30 that morning, Basnayake was buried.  At close to four that evening, he was brought back up to the surface.  He was not conscious, so he was taken to the hospital.  He was pronounced dead upon arrival.

The doctors at the hospital did a post mortem autopsy and could not determine at the time what the cause of death was.  They had plans for further investigations on what exactly killed him.

The victim’s mother stated that her son had always enjoyed doing things that were seen as unusual ever since his childhood.  He had watched many movies that encouraged that behavior.

It seems that Basnayake had been buried alive two times before for less amounts of time.  The first time was for two and a half hours.  The second time was for six hours.  It is currently unknown what the world record is officially for the longest time someone has been buried alive.

Could you imagine dying in such a tragic way?  Trying to win the world record in something that actually ends up killing you?  Did they not have some sort of way to tell if he wasn’t breathing under the ground?  I know I sure would if I were going for that kind of record!  At lease he died doing something that he loved, though, right? This story is very ironic!