Woman From Ecuador Declared Dead But Found Breathing in Coffin During Vigil Before Planned Burial
(Photo: Pexels/Pavel Danilyuk:)
Woman From Ecuador Declared Dead But Found Breathing in Coffin During Vigil Before Planned Burial

A dead woman came back to life. That's what her family thought. Bella Montoya was declared dead at a hospital in Ecuador, but her family was shocked when they found her breathing in her coffin.

Dead Woman Came Back To Life?

Montoya, 76, was admitted to a hospital Friday and was declared dead due to a possible stroke after she failed to respond to resuscitation, USA Today reported.

Montoya was a retired nurse. According to her son, Gilbert Balberan, his mother was unconscious when they brought her to the emergency room at Martin Icaza Hospital in Babahoyo, the capital of the Los Ríos province, Friday. Montoya reportedly told them she was feeling unwell. A few hours later, they were informed that she was dead and handed them the identity documents and her death certificate. The cause of death was cardiorespiratory arrest caused by an unspecified cerebrovascular disease, according to Mirror. Balberan also confirmed that his mother had suffered from hypertension and heart conditions.

The family brought her to a funeral home to hold a vigil before her planned burial. They put her in a coffin at 2 p.m. After about four to five hours, they opened the coffin to change her clothes. It was then that they saw her gasping for air.

A person attending the vigil filmed the incident and could be heard saying they were at 509 Olmedo Street, and the person who was declared dead turned out to be alive. At the time, they saw that she had vital signs.

Montoya struggled to breathe, so her family called for emergency services. Balberan noted how her mom was hitting the coffin with her left hand, noting that it was pulsating.

Balberan says his mom is on oxygen, and her heart is stable. The doctor pinched her hand, and she reacted, which was a good sign.

According to BBC, Montoya was not the only person to come alive after being officially declared dead. In February, an 82-year-old woman was also found breathing while lying in a funeral home in New York. She had been pronounced dead three hours earlier at a nursing home.

Is It Possible for a Dead Person to Live Again?

They were startled by the encounter, according to Balbera. Meanwhile, the government looks into the physicians connected to his mother's case. His mother has remained in intensive care since Monday.

The worst possible news is learning that a loved one has passed away. There is a caveat, though: a patient can't be too dead. This survival issue has nothing to do with zombies or chanting during the full moon.

The first step is determining whether we're talking about clinical or biological death. Although both terms imply that the patient is technically dead, they both signify a distinct degree of permanence. One may be fixed, but the other cannot, according to Very Well Health.

The heart and breathing must stop for clinical death, but that is merely semantics. Within a few seconds, breathing and consciousness come to an end.

The clinically dead can be revived. Researchers believe there's a window of around four minutes from the moment of cardiac arrest to the development of significant brain damage.

The patient may recover from clinical death if blood flow can be restored through cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or heart restarting. CPR has rather pitiful success rates, so it's not a guarantee. The opposite of biological death is brain death, which cannot be reversed.

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