76-Year-Old Woman Who Was Declared Dead and Surprised Relatives by Knocking on Her Coffin Dies After Seven Days in Intensive Care

A 76-year-old woman who had been declared dead and surprised her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake earlier this month has died after seven days in intensive care, her family said Saturday.

Bella Montoya reportedly woke up and started knocking on June 9 after spending five hours inside her coffin at a funeral home in Babahoyo, about 208 kilometers (about 129 miles) southwest of Quito. Late Friday, the Ecuadorian health ministry said in a statement that Montoya had died, giving her cause of death as a stroke.

Gilberto Barbera Montoya, the woman’s son, told The Associated Press that doctors at the state hospital where she was rushed after the incident said that she died on Friday evening. She was rushed straight back to the hospital in Ecuador’s central city of Babahoyo, where officials described her condition as “unstable” and her family said doctors hadn’t given them much hope of a recovery.

The incident has sparked a debate in Ecuador about the accuracy of death certificates and the need for more stringent procedures to ensure that people are declared dead only when they are truly deceased.

The Ecuadorian health ministry has said that it is investigating the incident and that it is taking steps to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future. The ministry has also said that it is working with the family to provide them with the necessary support during this difficult time.