A 74-year-old woman woke up from a coma and discovered doctors informed her family that she was dead and cremated a misidentified body.
Alba Maruri from Ecuador was admitted to a hospital on March 27 after experiencing difficulty breathing and a high fever.
Her family was then told that same day that she passed away.
Her sister, Aura, said health workers gave them what they believed were the remains of Alba.
Weeks after cremating the misidentified body, health staff returned to their home in Guayaquil and apologized.
“An ambulance arrived with a doctor, a psychiatrist and the social worker. They apologized, and they tell us ‘Your sister is alive,’ and we were in shock,” Aura shared. “It is a miracle of God what has happened.”
Alba was suspected to have contracted coronavirus but was not diagnosed with it as she wasn’t tested. Her family couldn’t visit her because of strict measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
“I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid they would take her (remains) to those containers for the dead,” Aura shared. “There was a failure by the hospital.”
Aura also said that she doesn’t know what to do with the ashes of the body given to them by mistake.
This incident highlights the difficulties Ecuador is facing as the COVID-19 pandemic left the health system overwhelmed and sanitary workers struggling to identify and collect the number of coronavirus victims.
Alba Maruri is still in hospital but is no longer in intensive care.
As of April 27, Ecuador has 22,719 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 576 fatalities, and another 1,060 people who are suspected to have passed away from it.
The country recognizes that the total number of fatalities has been higher than normal and that many people have died before being diagnosed.
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