15-Year-Old Girl in Guatemala Wakes Up in Her Coffin Eight Hours After Being Declared Dead
In Guatemala, 15-year-old Juleidy Ixcotoyac reportedly regained consciousness and sat up in her coffin eight hours after her family believed she had died. Health authorities have not yet issued an official medical explanation.
A 15-year-old girl in Guatemala, a Central American country, regained consciousness and sat up in her coffin during her own funeral gathering, according to the Latvian newspaper Latvijas Avīze. It happened eight hours after her family had concluded she was dead. Guatemala's health authorities have so far given no official medical assessment.
How it began
The events began in the early morning of 10 October. The girl, Juleidy Ixcotoyac, suddenly lost consciousness in her father's car while they were on the way to a medical center. Her father, Abraham, an evangelical pastor, stopped the vehicle and checked her pulse and breathing. Unable to detect either, he concluded his daughter had died.
The family never reached a hospital. They bought a coffin and drove home to arrange a funeral. By the afternoon, relatives and neighbors had gathered at the family home in El Jocotillo.
The turning point
The girl's mother, Lesvia Rios, leaned over the coffin in tears and noticed movement through its glass window. She told local media that she had kept repeating her daughter was alive. According to her, the window was opened and the girl moved, stirred and sat up.
Footage filmed by eyewitnesses shows relatives handing the teenager water and helping her out of the coffin. Within seconds the mourning turned into celebration, and the family and local community call the event a miracle.
The girl's account
Juleidy says she felt strong pain in her heart and a sense of heaviness, then lost consciousness as if she had fainted. She thanked God and described what happened as a miracle.
She is now recovering at home and is fully conscious, though she adds that her hands still tremble slightly.
