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Ecuador woman ‘back from the dead’ after hospital mix-up
Alba Maruri, 74, was hospitalised in March in Guayaquil, the city hardest hit by the pandemic, with fever and trouble breathing. She lost consciousness for three weeks and was declared dead on March 27, relatives said.
An Ecuador woman who was pronounced dead from Covid-19 suddenly woke up in the hospital, to the delight and relief of relatives who had identified someone else’s body as hers and had it cremated.
Alba Maruri, 74, was hospitalised in March in Guayaquil, the city hardest hit by the pandemic, with fever and trouble breathing. She lost consciousness for three weeks and was declared dead on March 27, relatives said.
A week later, her family was shown a corpse in the hospital morgue, but for fear of coronavirus contagion did not get close to it. The body was on its side, with the back showing, not the face.
Maruri’s nephew Jaime Morla said he thought it was his aunt and told hospital officials it was. “I was afraid to see her face,” he told AFP.
“I was a metre and a half away. She had the same hair, the same skin tone. She even had a wound like one my aunt had recently,” Morla said.
That body was taken to a funeral home and cremated.
Maruri regained consciousness Thursday and told doctors who she was and had them call her sister Aura.
“The doctors went to my aunt’s house to corroborate and inform them of the mistake,” said another nephew, Juan Carlos Ramirez. “They still do not know whose ashes they have in their house,” he added.
The family plans to sue the hospital to recover the cremation fee they paid and for the distress caused by the mix-up.
The sister told news outlets that hospital officials visited her on Friday and told her that her sister was well and about to be released. “It is a miracle. For nearly a month, we thought she was dead. And I have someone else’s ashes,” said Aura.
