When you respawn after dying in game it will sometimes have the option to 'view contents' when you first spawn in. If you press this you will see your gear from your dead body and if you drag something into your hands and relog you will have that item in your hands.

I found this out after pressing it out of curiosity. Afterwards I tried it again after another death to see if it can be reproduced and it can be. This is quite an issue! I am using the newui.