Getting buried alive used to be a world-wide phobia.
You would pass out or go into a coma and everyone would just rush you into a really early grave.
It wasn't an unreasonable fear.
Christine Quigley, author of The Corpse: A History, writes that in the early 1900s, a case of premature burial was discovered an average of once a week.
Inventions abounded to prevent such a thing. Coffins were invented that provided an airway. Others were easy-open devices and some had flag signals, according to Atlas Obscura.
