Bella Montoya, a 76-year-old woman from Ecuador, tragically passed away days after a shocking incident at her funeral.
Initially, a doctor at a Babahoyo hospital had pronounced her dead. However, during her wake, mourners were startled to hear knocking sounds coming from inside her coffin, prompting an immediate rush to return her to the hospital for further treatment.
After spending seven days in intensive care, the Ecuadorian health ministry sadly confirmed that Bella Montoya passed away on Friday due to an ischemic stroke. Throughout her hospitalization, she had been under constant observation by medical professionals.
In an interview with a local newspaper, Gilbert Barbera, Bella Montoya’s son, expressed his grief, saying, “This time my mother really did die. My life will never be the same.”
Following her passing on June 16th, Bella Montoya’s body was returned to the same funeral home before being laid to rest in a public cemetery, as reported by local media.
Reports suggest that Bella Montoya suffered from catalepsy, a condition characterized by seizures, loss of consciousness, and rigidity of the body.
In response to this unique case, the Ecuadorian health ministry has formed a commission of experts to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding her situation.
Ms Montoya was placed in a coffin and taken to the funeral parlour in Babahoyo, south-west of capital Quito, after being declared dead on 9 June.
But after almost five hours inside, the woman gasped for air after her relatives opened the coffin to change her clothes for the funeral.
Minutes later, she was stretchered out by fire fighters and transferred back to the same hospital.
Bella Montoya is not the only person to “come alive” after being officially declared dead.
In February, an 82-year-old woman was found to be breathing while lying in a funeral home in New York State. She had been pronounced dead three hours earlier at a nursing home.