An Ecuadorian woman who was 76 years old when she was pronounced dead woke up after five hours of her memorial ceremony and began pounding on the inside of her coffin.
After Bella Montoya suffered what may have been a stroke and went into cardiopulmonary arrest, the attending physicians pronounced her dead. According to the Ecuadorian Health Ministry, she did not respond to any attempts at resuscitation.
On June 9, her family met at a funeral home to hold her wake. However, they were forced to suspend the proceedings when they heard a sound from within the casket.
According to her son, the wake began just a few hours after the physicians confirmed Montoya had passed away.
Gilberto Barbera, who is Montoya’s son, was quoted as saying to the Associated Press, “It gave us all a fright.” However, he emphasized that her situation is still quite critical. Her family took her back to the hospital as soon as they could.
Barbera stated that there were perhaps twenty people present. He said when they neared the casket, they could see his mother laboriously exhaling as she was covered in sheets and hitting the coffin lid.
According to Barbera, the physicians believe that his mother went into a trance-like state called catalepsy after the cardiorespiratory arrest that caused it. In this state, the body becomes stiff and has limited sensitivity to pain.
According to the Ecuadorian health ministry, Montoya remained in intensive care on Monday while the ministry initiated an inquiry into the physicians who treated her the previous week. The investigators will scrutinize the hospital’s procedure for issuing death certificates in great detail.
There is no information on the physician who made the premature pronouncement of death about Montoya that has been made public by the Ministry of Health.
