the resurrection of a woman declared dead in Ecuador in its aftermath; Health authorities are checking

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Quito, Ecuador — A 76-year-old woman who was pronounced dead at a hospital in Ecuador startled her relatives by banging on her coffin as she was wounded, and the incident prompted a government investigation into the hospital.

Relatives left the coffin and rushed retired nurse Bella Montoya to the hospital after Friday in the central city of Papahoyo, Gilberto Barbera’s son told the Associated Press.

“It freaked us all out,” Barbera said, adding that doctors said his mother’s condition was still dire.

Ecuador’s Health Ministry said Montoya was in intensive care Monday at the Martín Icaza Hospital in Papahoyo while the ministry investigates the doctors involved in her case. In a statement, the ministry said that a technical committee has been formed to review how the hospital issues death certificates.

The department said Montoya was initially hospitalized on Friday with a possible stroke and cardiac arrest, and when she did not respond to resuscitation, a doctor on duty pronounced her dead.

Barbera said his mother was unconscious when she was brought to the emergency room, and a few hours later a doctor told him she had died and handed her identification documents and a death certificate.

The family then brought her to a funeral home and she woke up later that Friday when they started hearing strange noises.

“There were about 20 of us,” Barbera said. “About five hours after waking up, the coffin started making noises. My mother was wrapped in sheets and banging on the coffin, and when we got closer we could see that she was breathing hard.”

Although he and his relatives took her to the hospital on Friday, she was still in serious condition on Monday. She was intubated, Barbera said, and the doctors weren’t giving her relatives much hope about her prognosis.

No details were released about the doctor who declared the woman’s premature death.

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