Imagine attending a funeral and hearing the person inside the casket knocking! That’s exactly what happened to an Ecuadorian family, turning their sorrow into shock.
Bella Montoya, a 76-year-old lady from Ecuador, was declared deceased after what seemed to be a stroke. The doctors tried everything, but Bella’s heart wouldn’t start again. Or so they thought.
An elderly Ecuadoran woman woke up inside a coffin at her own wake.
A video posted on Twitter shows Bella Montoya, 76, in her open coffin breathing heavily while two men assist her.
Read: https://t.co/anEN6vQNFn pic.twitter.com/tzGqa6VGyG
— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) June 13, 2023
On June 9th, Bella’s family and friends gathered to say their final goodbyes. But in the middle of the memorial ceremony, a sound from the coffin interrupted the somber silence.
It was just hours after Bella had been declared passed away. Her son, Gilberto Barbera, couldn’t believe his ears. He described the startling moment: “It gave us all a fright.”
The family was quick to react. Seeing Bella breathing hard, covered in sheets, and banging on the coffin lid, they immediately rushed her back to the hospital. Gilberto was quick to point out, though, that Bella’s condition remains very serious.
Now, you may wonder how something like this could happen. Gilberto says the doctors think Bella had something called catalepsy – a condition where your body goes stiff and doesn’t feel much pain. It might have made her seem dead, even though she wasn’t.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry of Ecuador is trying to figure out what went wrong. They’re looking at how the hospital does its death certificates and investigating the doctors who treated Bella. The person who first declared Bella dead hasn’t been identified yet.
