A funeral in Olmos, Lambayeque, Peru, took an astonishing turn when a man believed to be deceased, identified only as Iván, showed unexpected signs of life. The prayers were abruptly interrupted when attendees noticed movement from the coffin and heard faint noises, realizing that Iván was breathing. Confusion and disbelief rippled through the crowd.
As reported by the Mirror, they screamed and ran to open the coffin, calling others and trying to free Iván. The scene was one of chaos, with some individuals crying, others screaming, and religious attendees beginning to pray and sing hymns for his soul.
"Glory to God! This man is alive. All those watching us, your prayers for this man, Iván, may God show His glory. Just as He resurrected Lazarus, God can do so with this man. Oh, holy! Pray for this man!" exclaimed one witness, according to the Mirror. The reference to Lazarus, a biblical figure resurrected by Jesus, emphasized the perceived miraculous nature of the event.
The moment was captured on video, which quickly went viral on social media, amassing over 91,000 views. Many social media users were divided in their interpretations of the incident. Some considered it a genuine miracle, while others suggested it might have been a staged video designed to generate reactions.
Several commenters on the video proposed that Iván may have experienced an episode of catalepsy, a rare neurological disorder. Catalepsy is characterized by extreme muscle rigidity, apparent paralysis, shallow breathing, and a slowed heartbeat, all of which can cause a person to appear deceased while they remain conscious. Its symptoms include paralysis and stiffness that could be mistaken for rigor mortis.
"Those who don't believe in God will say catalepsy, and those of us who do believe, we know it's resurrection," added one commenter.
The phenomenon of individuals regaining signs of life after being declared dead is not unprecedented. Even with modern medical methods, mistakes are sometimes made, and people can be pronounced dead before apparently "coming back to life," according to the Mirror. In June of the previous year, a woman named Bella Montoya Castro, 76, was declared dead at a hospital in southwest Quito, Ecuador. Castro woke up during her funeral hours later, shocking her family and friends who had gathered to mourn her passing.
In another case cited by the Mirror, a 16-year-old Texas resident named Sammy Berko suffered cardiac arrest at a rock climbing gym and was pronounced dead after medics abandoned efforts to resuscitate him. His mother, Jennifer Berko, described how she began speaking to him, saying, "I started talking to him, just telling him how much I love him and sorry that we didn't know how to save him. Suddenly, as I started praying, my husband said, 'Oh my gosh, he's moving.'" One of his doctors hailed him as a "literal miracle."
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