Elderly Woman Declared Dead in Ecuador Shockingly Comes Back to Life, Banging on Coffin During Her Wake
“It gave us all a fright,” Bella Montoya's son said, adding that his 76-year-old mom was still in unstable condition
A 76-year-old woman who was declared dead at an Ecuadorian hospital was found alive in her coffin after she started banging on it during her wake.
Bella Montoya, a retired nurse, was brought to the hospital early Friday after suffering cardiopulmonary arrest and a possible stroke, the Associated Press. After not responding to the resuscitation efforts, she was declared dead.
Doctors informed Montoya’s family, including her son Gilberto Barbera, that she was dead and handed over a death certificate, according to the AP. The family took her to a funeral home and held a wake. Five hours in, the coffin started to rattle.
“It gave us all a fright,” Barbera told the AP.
“There were about 20 of us there,” he continued. “After about five hours of the wake, the coffin started to make sounds. My mom was wrapped in sheets and hitting the coffin, and when we approached we could see that she was breathing heavily.”
In a video taken as soon as she was discovered breathing, the open coffin sat in a small light blue room with a crucifix and several lights. Montoya laid in the coffin wrapped in several different colorful blankets and breathed heavily, with her mouth opening and closing in quick succession.
Relatives removed Montoya from the coffin and quickly took her back to the hospital where she was placed in intensive care. According to her son, she remained in serious condition on Monday with an uncertain prognosis.
Montoya is in intensive care at the Martín Icaza Hospital in Babahoyo, according to Ecuador’s Ministry of Public Health. The ministry is also opening an investigation to review how the hospital issues death certificates, the ministry said in a statement.
A similar incident occurred earlier this year in the United States. A New York nursing home is under investigation after a woman was pronounced dead only to be found breathing a few hours later at a funeral home.
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The incident happened at the Water's Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson, the Suffolk County Police Department tells PEOPLE in a statement. The woman, 82, was pronounced dead at 11:15 a.m. and transported to the O.B. Davis Funeral Home in Miller Place at 1:30 p.m. She was later discovered breathing at 2:09 p.m. and transported to a local hospital, according to the Suffolk County police.
"This is an awful situation that has caused unnecessary trauma for the impacted resident and her loved ones," a spokesperson for the AG's office told PEOPLE. "The Office of the Attorney General is looking into the incident."
A similar incident happened in Iowa in Jan. when a 66-year-old woman began to gasp for air after the body bag she was in was unzipped at a funeral home there.
Related: N.Y. Nursing Home Under Investigation After Woman Declared Dead Found Breathing at Funeral Home
In that incident, the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center received a $10,000 fine after an investigation by the Health Facilities Division of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, which oversees health facility safety.
The woman was taken to the hospital and then re-released to the care center, where she died two days later.
"We just completed an investigation by the Department of Inspections and Appeals regarding the matter," Lisa Eastman, executive director for the care center, told PEOPLE at the time. "We care deeply for our residents and remain fully committed to supporting their end-of-life care. All employees undergo regular training so they can best support end-of-life care and the death of our residents."
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