Woman Who Was Pronounced Dead Bangs on Coffin During Funeral

An Ecuadorian woman shocked her relatives after she woke up during her own funeral and began pounding on the inside of her coffin—and yes, there is video proof. Bella Montoya, 76, regained consciousness during the wake her family arranged, which was held in the city of Babahoyo on Friday. Read on to find out what happened. 

The wake was interrupted when Montoya's grieving loved ones heard repetitive noises from within the casket. "Her left hand was hitting the side of the coffin, and it was shaking," Montoya's son, Gilbert Balberán, told local media. Video from the service shows paramedics tending to Montoya, who can be seen breathing as she's removed from the casket and placed onto a stretcher.

Balberán said the wake was held just four hours after Montoya was declared dead. A medical examiner provided him with a death certificate listing her cause of death as cardiorespiratory arrest.

The cardiorespiratory arrest caused Montoya to suffer catalepsy, a trancelike condition marked by the rigidity of the body, decreased sensitivity to pain, and slower bodily functions such as breathing. This led hospital staff to conclude she had died, her son said.

Montoya is now being treated at the same hospital. "My mother is on oxygen. Her heart is stable," said Balberán. "The doctor squeezed her hand, and she reacted. They tell me this is a good sign because it means she is reacting little by little."

"Now, I only ask that my mother's health improves," he added. "I want her alive and by my side."

This isn't the first time in recent years that a person thought to be expired has "awakened" after being pronounced dead. In March, a Florida man started breathing 20 minutes after being pronounced dead by medics. It was a shock to everyone, particularly his daughter, who was on the phone telling relatives her father had died.

"It was just a trip, man," Thomas Maxwell, 66, told The Washington Post. "Not that I even recall it, but my God." Maxwell's daughter Phebe found her father unconscious on the floor of this bedroom and called paramedics, who pronounced him dead without performing any tests.  At one point, Phebe told the medic she believed her dad was breathing, but he replied that Thomas's body was just "releasing its gases."

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When a deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office arrived, he noticed Thomas was still breathing and had a pulse, the sheriff's office said in a statement. The deputy called medics from a different department, and they came to the house with a defibrillator, Phebe said.

They rushed her father to a nearby hospital.  "If it weren't for that deputy, my dad could've suffocated unnecessarily, could've woken up in the morgue," Phebe told the Washington Post. "I wouldn't have my dad sitting here next to me, and that scares me. You're supposed to trust these people."