A 15-year-old schoolgirl has stunned mourners by sitting upright inside her own coffin during her wake in rural Guatemala, eight hours after her father believed she had died from a sudden heart attack-like collapse.
Dramatic footage shows Yuleidy Ixcotoyac, dressed in a bright pink T-shirt, being helped from the open casket as relatives and neighbours embrace her in disbelief, with some shouting “Hallelujah” amid the chaos.
The extraordinary scenes unfolded on Saturday afternoon at the family’s simple home in the village of El Jocote, in the municipality of Sacapulas, Quiché Department.
‘My heart started hurting really badly’
Yuleidy had fallen ill in the early hours of Saturday. She later described feeling a crushing pain in her chest.
“My heart started hurting really badly; it felt heavy and then I blacked out, like I fainted,” she told local television.
Her father, Abraham Ixcotoyac, an evangelical pastor, immediately put her in the car and drove towards a medical centre. Near San Pedro, he stopped the vehicle after becoming convinced she had stopped breathing.
“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. “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.”
He confirmed she never reached a hospital. “She did not go to hospital.”
Believing his daughter was dead, Abraham went to a funeral home, bought a coffin, and returned home. No doctor examined Yuleidy and no death certificate was issued. By around 2.30pm, relatives, church members and neighbours had gathered at the house for the wake.
Mother’s tears turn to joy
As mourners paid their respects, Yuleidy’s mother, Lesvia Ríos, was crying over the coffin when she noticed movement inside.
“I kept saying she was alive; she wasn’t dead,” Lesvia said. “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.”
The family and guests, many of them in casual clothes and hats, were left open-mouthed. Relatives rushed to help the teenager out of the coffin and offered her water. The moment was filmed and quickly spread online, showing the raw emotion as people hugged Yuleidy and the atmosphere shifted from grief to celebration within seconds.
‘It was a miracle’
Speaking afterwards, Yuleidy said she had felt as though she was in darkness looking for light before waking up. She described the experience as divine intervention.
“I have no way to thank God for everything he has done in my life. It was a miracle,” she said. “Thanks to my parents who are with me, and I didn’t leave them alone.”
She added that her hands were still trembling but that she was beginning to regain her strength. She is said to be conscious and recovering at home.
Her parents and church community have described the episode as a miracle of faith. Abraham has maintained that he genuinely believed his daughter had died on the road.
Guatemalan authorities have opened an investigation into the circumstances, examining why the family proceeded with a wake without medical confirmation of death. Health officials have not released any medical findings explaining what caused Yuleidy’s collapse or how she regained consciousness after roughly eight hours.
The video of the schoolgirl sitting up in the coffin has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, with many viewers calling the scenes “unbelievable” and “the stuff of nightmares turned into a miracle.”
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