Resurrected: Elderly woman in Ecuador wakes up inside coffin after being declared dead

In an unusual incident, an elderly woman woke up inside a coffin at her own wake in Ecuador. As per reports she is being treated at the same hospital where she was declared dead two days earlier.

A video posted on Twitter shows Bella Montoya, 76, in her open coffin breathing heavily while two men assist her. The video of the incident has gone viral on social media.



Her son, Gilbert Balberan, said "she was hitting the box" with her left hand after the five-hour wake.

The son said he had to arrange for the donation of a coffin since the family was very poor. The government hospital in Martin Icaza public area, in the coastal town of Babahoyo, had declared the lady dead on Friday.

"They even gave us a death certificate," the son told the local media.

The unusual incident was widely reported in the Ecuadoran media, with headlines celebrating the woman's "resurrection".

"My mom is on oxygen. Her heart is stable. The doctor pinched her hand and she reacted," Balberan said in an El Universo newspaper report.

"They tell me that this is good, because it means that she is reacting little by little."

Montoya was admitted to hospital with a suspected stroke "and went into cardiorespiratory arrest without responding to resuscitation maneuvers, so the doctor on duty confirmed her death," Ecuador's Health Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The ministry said it had established a committee to investigate the incident and that it would supervise Montoya's care.

Balberan said he had visited his mother in the hospital's intensive care unit on Sunday.

"Little by little I am grasping what has happened. Now I only pray for my mother's health to improve. I want her alive and by my side," he said.

(Inputs from AFP)