The death of a loved one brings us heartache. We often wish to have just one more day, hour, or minute with the person. But alas, only their memory remains. When a family in Ecuador lost their mother recently, they thought they had said their final goodbyes, but things took a crazy turn at her wake.
Retired nurse Bella Montoya had died — well, at least her family thought she did — so they planned a wake and funeral. A group of mourners gathered to pay their respects to the beloved mother, and after several hours, they heard banging from inside the coffin. It was as terrifying as it sounds.
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Montoya was declared dead at the hospital.
Montoya, 76, was taken to Martín Icaza Hospital in Babahoyo on Friday after a medical emergency. Doctors believed that she had suffered a possible stroke and cardiopulmonary arrest, the Associated Press reported. She did not respond to efforts to resuscitate her, so doctors deemed her dead.
Doctors handed her family a death certificate.
Gilberto Barbera, Montoya’s son, told the AP a doctor gave him a death certificate, so the family began making final arrangements. The wake took place later Friday afternoon, and mourners were making the best of the sad day when suddenly, they heard something.
“It gave us all a fright,” her son said.
Yeah, we can only imagine.
Montoya waited a while to wake up.
According to her son, the wake had been going on for several hours before anyone realized Montoya was still alive.
“There were about 20 of us there,” Barbera said. “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.”
Per the New York Post, Barbera told local newspaper Jam Press "Her left hand was hitting the side of the coffin, and it was shaking."
She returned to the same hospital that had declared her dead.
Emergency personnel took Montoya back to the hospital for treatment after they realized she was alive. Barbera said she is doing OK.
“My mother is on oxygen. Her heart is stable,” he told Jam Press, per the Post. “The doctor squeezed her hand, and she reacted. They tell me this is a good sign because it means she is reacting little by little.”
Barbera believes that Montoya's survival is a miracle and is coming to grips with what happened to her. “Now, I only ask that my mother’s health improves,” he said. “I want her alive and by my side.”
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This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened.
These kinds of stories have happened in the United States, too. According to ABC 7, a woman in Suffolk County, New York, was declared dead at a nursing home in February 2023. A few hours later, employees at a funeral home realized she was breathing. An updated condition was not reported.
In January 2023, a woman in Iowa also was declared dead at a nursing home and put into a cloth bag that was zipped shut. When the funeral home staff unzipped the bag, she gasped for air. She died two days later in hospice care, ABC 7 reported.
