Stupor around a coffin in Ecuador: Relatives who had been watching an elderly woman pronounced dead for five hours suddenly heard her breathing, the son of the person, who local media describe as “rising”, said on Sunday.
Video posted to Twitter shows Bella Montoya, 76, breathing heavily in an open coffin surrounded by two men who come to her aid.
🇪🇨 | The leaders of the Tercera Edad, including Bella Montoya, died in Babahoyo Hospital.
I look all day long to realize the velo, but the longest hour is up until I’m alive.pic.twitter.com/kOsaqxcnmB
— Alerta Mundial (@AlertaMundial2) June 10, 2023
With her “left hand, she was hitting the walls and her hand was shaking,” her son Gilbert Balberan said in another video released by local media.
The local press repeated this story and spoke of a “resurrection”.
“My mother is on oxygen. His heart is stable. The doctor pinched her hand and she responded,” added Mr Balberan in a remark reported by El Universo newspaper.
Ms Montoya was pronounced dead at a public hospital in the southwestern coastal town of Babahoyo on Friday.
According to the Department of Health, Ms Montoya had been hospitalized with a suspected stroke and “suffered from cardiac arrest without responding to resuscitation efforts, after which the doctor on duty confirmed her death”.
A technical committee is responsible for “analyzing this case in depth” and conducting “a medical audit to establish responsibility” for the erroneous death certificate, the ministry added in a press release.
“I’m slowly recovering from what happened. Now all I want is for my mother’s health to improve. I want her alive and by my side,” Mr Balberan sighed.