A 15-year-old Guatemalan girl, Yuleidy Ixcotoyac, stunned her grieving family after waking up inside her coffin during her own funeral, hours after her father presumed her dead without medical confirmation.
The teenager reportedly collapsed while her father, Abraham Ixcotoyac, was taking her to a medical centre. He stopped the vehicle after she lost consciousness but said he could neither detect her pulse nor feel her breathing.
Convinced that his daughter had died, the evangelical pastor declared her dead in the early hours of Saturday without taking her to a hospital for confirmation.
“She had simply ceased to exist, she died on the way,” he told local media, according to The Sun.
“I saw that she was no longer breathing and I couldn’t feel her pulse on her wrists. It was a very difficult situation for me. She did not go to hospital.”
No doctor had confirmed the teenager’s death, and no official death certificate had been issued before her family began funeral preparations.
A coffin was purchased, and a funeral was organised about eight hours after she collapsed.
By 2.30pm, mourners had gathered at the family home in El Jocote, a rural village in Guatemala, to pay their last respects.
However, the funeral took a dramatic turn when her mother, Lesvia Ríos, noticed movement inside the coffin as she wept over it.
“I kept saying she was alive; she wasn’t dead,” Ríos told local media.
“When I was crying on top of her casket, we opened the window and she was moving, she was waking up and suddenly she sat up.”
Footage of the incident reportedly showed mourners gathered around the wooden coffin as the mother raised the alarm.
The teenager, wearing a pink T-shirt, suddenly sat up and began speaking, leaving relatives in disbelief.
Family members quickly helped her out of the coffin and gave her water as grief gave way to celebration. Relatives were heard shouting “hallelujah” as they realised she was alive.
Yuleidy later said she had experienced severe chest pain before losing consciousness.
“My heart started hurting really badly, it felt heavy and then I blacked out, like I fainted,” she said.
The teenager is now conscious and recovering at home. She also said she “thanks God” for being alive.
The incident highlights the importance of medical confirmation of death before funeral arrangements are made.
Never miss a moment! Get the stories shaping Nigeria, delivered straight to your phone. Follow Peoplesdaily Newspaper on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive reports, and the headlines everyone will be talking about, before anyone else.
