Mourners shocked after 'dead' woman starts breathing at her funeral

Next time, if doctors break the tragic news of the death of a friend or a close relative to you, make sure to get a second opinion from another hospital or a healthcare professional before going ahead with a funeral because recently an elderly woman was found to be alive at her own funeral shocking the mourners.

Bella Montoya, 76, was pronounced dead by a hospital doctor in Babahoyo City following a suspected stroke. Before her scheduled burial, family members gathered in a funeral home and held a vigil for her before placing her in a coffin, the BBC reported.

The woman gasped for air when they finally opened the coffin, nearly five hours later, to dress her up for the funeral.

"My mom started to move her left hand, to open her eyes, to open her mouth; she struggled to breathe," her son Gilbert Balberán said.

An ambulance was called, which was late to arrive.

They also said that a short while later, emergency responders showed up, removed Bella Montoya from the casket onto a stretcher, and rushed her to the hospital, where she had been pronounced dead.

While talking to local media, the woman's son shared that she was in intensive care but was responsive.

Balberán said: "I had taken my mother to the hospital at about 9:00 am and at noon a doctor told me she died." He added that he had even been issued a death certificate, which stated that she had died of cardiopulmonary arrest after suffering a stroke.

"My mom is on oxygen; her heart is stable. The doctor pinched her hand and she reacted; they tell me that's good because it means she is reacting little by little," newspaper El Universo quoted him as saying.

A committee to look into the incident has been formed by Ecuador's Ministry of Health.

It is not just Bella Montoya who has "come alive" after being pronounced dead. An 82-year-old woman was discovered to be breathing in a funeral home in the state of New York in February. Three hours earlier, a nursing home had declared her dead.