A 76-year-old woman who had been declared dead and surprised her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake earlier this month has died after seven days in intensive care, her family said Saturday.
Gilberto Barbera Montoya, the woman’s son, told The Associated Press that doctors at the state hospital where she was rushed after the incident said that she died on Friday evening.
Ecuador’s health ministry confirmed in a statement that Bella Montoya died from an ischemic stroke after spending a week in intensive care.
It added that Montoya had remained under “permanent surveillance,” but didn’t provide further information on the medical investigation surrounding the case.
Barbera Montoya said that he hadn’t yet received any report from the authorities on the medical explanation of what happened and warned that things “are not going to stay like this.”
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BREAKING: According to local authorities and her relatives, a 76-year-old woman who was confirmed dead at a hospital pounded on her coffin at a wake in Ecuador. She was transported in critical condition back to the hospital.
— EvoCentral (@evocentralnews) June 12, 2023
He added that a sister of the deceased woman had formally complained about the incident, seeking to identify the doctor who declared her dead to begin with.
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Bella Montoya reportedly woke up and started knocking on her coffin lid June 9 after spending five hours inside the box at a funeral home in Babahoyo, about 129 miles southwest of Quito.
The remains of Montoya, who was a retired nurse, are back at the same funeral home where she woke up.
Her son told the AP that she will be buried at a public cemetery.
A technical committee has been formed to review how the hospital issues death certificates, the country’s ministry of health said last week.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
