A 15-year-old girl in Guatemala was found alive in her coffin eight hours after being considered dead. Yuleidy Ixcotoyac lost consciousness while her father drove her to a medical centre in the early hours of Saturday morning (October 10).
Father thought she had died
Abraham Ixcotoyac, an evangelical pastor, stopped the car, checked for a pulse and breathing, and concluded she had died after finding neither. The family obtained a coffin without a doctor examining her or issuing a death certificate and returned home to begin the wake.
Mourners gathered at the house in El Jocote, Quiché Department, Guatemala, at around 2.30pm. Her mother Lesvia Rios leaned over the coffin in tears and noticed movement inside.
She sat up in her coffin
The family was stunned when the schoolgirl opened her eyes and sat upright in the coffin. Lesvia told local media: "I kept saying she was alive, she wasn't dead. 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."
Shocked loved ones offered her water and helped the teen out of the coffin as the moment was filmed and spread online.
Family calls it a miracle
The girl later described the moments before she collapsed. "My heart started hurting really badly, it felt heavy and then I blacked out, like I fainted," she explained. "I have no way to thank God for everything he has done in my life." She added: "It was a miracle."
Her father confirmed she never reached a clinic. "I pulled over, parked my car and went to her and saw the situation that she had simply ceased to exist, she died on the way," he said. He further shared: "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."
Community members who had assembled for the funeral switched from grief to celebration within seconds, with the family calling the recovery a divine intervention. She is said to be conscious and recovering at home, although she mentioned her hands are still trembling. Guatemalan health authorities have issued no medical findings on the episode.
