Miracle or mistake? Officially dead woman comes back to life at her funeral

A septuagenarian  Ecuadorian woman, who was declared dead at a hospital in the city of Babahoyo, miraculously came back to life at her funeral after relatives opened the casket to find her gasping for air.

"I lifted up the coffin, and her heart was pounding, and her left hand was hitting the coffin… We called 911 to bring her here to the hospital," her son Gilberto Barbera said in a video.

A video posted on social media shows people seen waiting and supporting Montoya as emergency services arrived at the scene, taking the 76-year-old woman back to the hospital.

Ministry of Public Health said: "A state investigation is now underway. The woman had been admitted Friday to the hospital with a possible stroke and cardiopulmonary arrest, and after she didn’t respond to resuscitation protocol, a doctor on duty declared her dead."

In the video, hospital tags can be seen on her, as her son asks for an ambulance.

The full name of the woman is reported as Bella Yolanda Montoya Castro, corresponding to the initials “BYMC” used in Ecuador’s Health Ministry statement issued Sunday.

It also noted that the woman was in intensive care at the Martín Icaza Hospital in Babahoyo – the same facility that initially declared her dead. The current condition of the 76-year-old remains unknown.

The ministry also noted that in coordination with the Health Services Quality Assurance Agency, a national technical committee was formed “to initiate a medical audit to establish responsibilities for the alleged confirmation of death.”