A woman who was declared dead after suffering a suspected stroke and cardiac arrest shocked those at her wake when she started making noise from her coffin.
Bella Montoya, a 76-year-old retired nurse in Ecuador, had started banging on her coffin, and her family soon discovered that she was alive and breathing.
“It gave us all a fright,” Montoya’s son, Gilberto Barbera, told the AP.
Montoya was unconscious when her family had taken her to the hospital on Friday. Once Montoya did not respond to resuscitation, a doctor told Barbera that she had died and handed over a death certificate.
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Once Montoya’s family discovered that she was still alive at the wake later that day, she was rushed back to the hospital.
Montoya was in intensive care at Martín Icaza Hospital in Babahoyo on Monday, according to the Ecuador Ministry of Health. Barbera said that doctors have not given relatives much hope about her condition.
The ministry said it is investigating the doctors in Montoya’s case and formed a technical committee to see how the hospital issues death certificates.
