Through some slit, a dry tapping sound on the wood of the box penetrated between the quiet dialogues of the mourning ceremony. At the funeral home in Babahoyo town, Ecuadoreveryone cried for the polished wooden coffin. The body of Bella Montoya, 76 years old, He lay wrapped in shrouds and flowers when the woman began banging on the coffin lid as his son and several relatives looked on in confusion.. That night in June 2023, the pain turned to terror and then to disbelief.
The event attended by the retired teacher Bella Montoyatoured around the world. The media, neighbors, authorities and even religious people gathered around the news. No one was surprised: a death certified by specialists, a corpse kept awake for hours, and Suddenly there was a resurrection that forced the funeral to be interrupted and the family pain to be replayed.
—There is a noise in the coffin! – shouted the voice of a relative, while the murmur of disbelief grew around him.
“I opened the box quickly,” asked another.
The lid gave way and Bella Montoya’s stunned look appeared in front of her relatives. She was alive. Meanwhile, those present retreated amidst shouts and shouts. It was the face of a miracle and a nightmare at the same time.
The story begins in the Martín Icaza Hospital BabahoyoCapital of the Los Ríos Province in Ecuador. Bella was admitted there on June 6, 2023 due to a stroke. After hours of agony and no recorded vital signs or neurological response, specialists confirmed his death. The body was released to the family for the memorial service, ready for burial.
Bryan BarberaThe woman’s son, remembers these minutes as if time had stood still:
“Everything was so fast, so cold,” he says. The doctor just came and gave me the death certificate. “We are very sorry,” they told me.
The official document read in white on black: “Cardiovascular arrest unresponsive to resuscitation maneuvers.” Nobody disputed the diagnosis, at least at first. The body was prepared and taken to the funeral home.
The vigil was changed. Beneath the prayers and tears was an element of bitter resignation. The son, grandchildren and some neighbors waited for the final farewell. No one expressed the possibility that anything could change the calculated order of the funeral rituals.
The silence in the room was suddenly broken when the first loud noise was heard, that knock that didn’t fit into any expected logic. What followed was an almost biblical scene of collective disbelief. Those present could hardly believe what they were seeing. According to witness statements Bella’s chest heaved, her mouth searched for oxygen and the woman struggled to open her eyes.. It was the return of someone everyone thought had said goodbye forever.
Social media soon amplified this statement with improvised videos showing Bella lying on the stretcher, disoriented but alive.
The chaotic dance of ambulances, officials and journalists began. The woman was taken back to the hospital, where doctors stammered explanations and took refuge behind the doors of bureaucracy and fear of media exposure.
The Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador ordered an administrative investigation. The death certificate became evidence and the cause of a scandal. How could a woman who was certified dead come back to life after several hours in a coffin with no signs of decay or obvious damage?
The health authorities They barely managed to come up with a technical justification: “Presumed diagnosis of stroke with possible catalepsy.” But the explanations did not calm the voices of the people.
Bella Montoya’s name circulated as a symbol of the medical mystery. The experts hardly addressed the possibility with neutral formulations a catalepsythat rare phenomenon in which the body seemingly loses all vital functions, but the person is still alive, hanging in an unknown truce between death and return.
“It is inconceivable that they have not carried out rigorous clinical confirmation,” a medical source said BBC World.
Bella Montoya’s second hospitalization It took place under a cloud of cameras and journalists. The hospital became the scene of confrontation between family members and medical staff.
In the hallways, family members watched the doctors’ movements, the whispers behind masks and the ambiguous answers. The senior doctor with a rumpled suit and a tired face took the press hesitantly:
—We are continuing to evaluate the case. “The appropriate tests are being carried out,” he said, his voice buried by the mobile drivers’ questions.
Sometimes, Bella’s face was visible behind the room’s plastic curtain. She was breathing on her own, although with difficulty. He couldn’t articulate coherent words. His son clung to hope even though the weight of the inexplicable was a dark current beneath his feet.
—I saw my mother looking at the ceiling and moving her fingers. I touched it, I felt the heat,” Bryan told Ecuadorian broadcaster Ecuavisa. “I thought I would never get this opportunity.”
It was a short and sharp return. Bella’s strange vitality lasted only seven days after her awakening. He finally died the following Friday. But by then it was already a symbol.
church institutions They weren’t left out either. In Sunday’s sermon, the priest of the Babahoyo community suggested in a deep voice that the event should be seen as “a call to attention for respect for burial rites and the dignity of the body.”
Amid the media whirlwind, the Barbera Montoya family became the target of unsolicited attention. In front of the camera, Bryan – Bella’s son – alternated tears and anger.
“I just don’t understand how you certify someone’s death without being 100 percent sure,” he said, clenching his fists. “What if we hadn’t heard anything? Would they have buried my mother alive?”
The grief multiplied in stages: First the farewell, then the amazement, then a brief hope and finally the final loss
The family reported that after the miraculous awakening Bella Montoya He could barely carry on a minimal conversation. “He recognized our voices, he tried to touch us, but his body no longer fully responded,” his son said.
The Martín Icaza Hospital, where Bella was pronounced dead, admitted that the procedure was somewhat rushed due to room congestion and the urgency to free up beds. The local prosecutor’s office opened an investigation file to determine whether there was negligence and whether sanction or regulatory review was necessary.
However, doctors found support in the statistics: incidents of this type are practically non-existent, with only a few cases documented worldwide every decade.
But at least in the short term, social fear prevailed. Babahoyo Funeral Homes reported an increase in inquiries about preservation and methods to “guarantee that the dead are truly dead.” Some asked that mirrors or bells be placed in the coffin, a custom from other times that revived the episode with new urgency.
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