WATCH: ‘Dead’ woman wakes up at her own funeral

A 76-year-old woman from Ecuador who had been declared dead gave mourners the shock of their lives when she woke up inside her coffin. According to international media, Bella Montoya regained consciousness during her wake, which was held in the city of Babahoyo on Friday, 9 June 2023.

Montoya, a retired nurse, soon started knocking on her coffin, prompting her relatives to open it. Medics were soon called to the scene and she was removed from the coffin and placed onto a stretcher.

“Her left hand was hitting the side of the coffin and it was shaking,” her son Gilbert Balberan told local media, according to Jam Press. Video showing the exact moment has gone viral on social media.

WHAT HAPPENED TO WOMAN CERTIFIED DEAD?

The woman’s ‘death’ was linked to cardiorespiratory arrest – and confirmed by the medical examiner who even provided her son with the death certificate. Balberan told media that the wake was held just four hours after his mother had been declared dead.

Balberan said the cardiorespiratory arrest caused his mother to suffer catalepsy, which is a condition characterised by a trance or seizure with a loss of sensation and consiousness, accompanied by rigidity in the body.

GOVERNMENT PROBING THE INCIDENT

Now, the Ecuadorian Health Ministry has launched an investigation into the incident, including the doctors who treated Bella Montoya and declared her dead. A technical committee has since been formed to review how the hospital in question – The Martin Icaza Hospital – issues death certificates.

As for Montoya, the ministry said she was still in intensive care at the hospital as from Monday, 12 June 2023.