76-year-old Woman Who Knocked On Coffin During Her Own Wake Now Officially Declared Dead After Seven Days in Intensive Care
June 19 2023, Published 9:00 a.m. ET
The 76-year-old Ecuadorian woman who woke up during her own wake earlier this month was officially declared dead over the weekend, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Bella Montoya, a retired nurse from Babahoyo in southwest Quito, Ecuador, passed away on Friday evening.
Her passing came seven days after she was first declared dead on June 9 but subsequently woke up during her own wake and surprised her grieving relatives.
Gilberto Barbera Montoya, Bella's son, told the Associated Press this weekend that his mother had initially been admitted earlier this month with a possible stroke and cardiopulmonary arrest.
Unfortunately, when she did not respond to resuscitation, it was declared that she had passed away.
The family then held a wake for Bella and were shocked when she started to knock from inside the coffin after spending five hours inside the casket.
Despite remaining under "permanent surveillance" while in intensive care, Bella passed away from an ischemic stroke on Friday.
"This time my mother really did die,” Bella’s son announced this weekend. “My life will not be the same."
The Ecuadorian health ministry issued a statement confirming the cause of death but did not provide any further information regarding the medical investigation.
A technical committee has since been formed to review hospital death certificate practices, and Bella's sister has since filed a formal complaint.
Bella’s son also recently warned that things "are not going to stay like this."
Bella's remains are reportedly back at the funeral home where she previously shocked family members, and her son confirmed that she will be buried at a public cemetery.
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Meanwhile, similar incidents have reportedly happened recently in the United States – including a case in December 2020 when an Iowa care facility mistakenly pronounced a 66-year-old female resident dead and transported her to a funeral home before she woke up "gasping for air."
Then, this past February, an 82-year-old woman was found breathing while lying inside a coffin in a New York State funeral home. She was reportedly pronounced dead by mistake three hours earlier at a nursing home.
