Woman, 76, dies just days after shocking relatives by waking up at her own funeral inside coffin
AN ELDERLY woman who knocked on her coffin during her own wake has died – again – after a week in hospital.
Bella Montoya, 76, shocked relatives by waking up after she had been declared dead by doctors earlier this month.
But Ecuador’s health ministry confirmed in a statement that the woman has now died from an ischemic stroke after spending a week in intensive care.
The ministry’s statement added that she had remained under “permanent surveillance” while in intensive care, but medics were unable to save her.
The woman’s son, Gilberto, said was not given any medical explanation as to why his suddenly mother woke up hours after her ‘death’.
Officials have launched a probe to identify the doctor who signed her death certificate after the family made an official complaint.
Retired nurse Bella was found alive in her coffin after spending five hours in a funeral home on June 9.
She was stretchered away by firefighters and transferred back to the same hospital where she had earlier ‘died’.
Her remains have now been returned to the funeral home, where she will be buried in a cemetery this week.
Gilberto previously said of the incident: “There were about 20 of us there … After about five hours of the wake, the coffin started to make sounds.
“My mum was wrapped in sheets and hitting the coffin, and when we approached we could see that she was breathing heavily.