About a glitch with a totem of undying in my hardcore world.

Me and my friends were playing in a hardcore world and about to fight the Warden. One of my friends got chased by the Warden and died while holding a totem of undying in his left hand — even though the totem should have saved him, it didn't activate. We ended up talking about whether it would be fair to give him a revive so we don't have to restart the world. I wanted to get an outside opinion: is it fair to give my friend another chance since the totem glitched and didn't trigger?