Girl Did Not ‘Wake Up’ At Funeral, Family Hoaxed By ‘Quack’ Doctor

A now-viral story regarding a child in the Philippines who “woke up” at her own funeral was a hoax, it has been somewhat unsurprisingly revealed.

The story of the dead girl waking up at her funeral is not a totally unheard of news lead in this day and age — we’ve definitely seen some stories of this caliber in the not too distant past, though they’re often few and far between.

However, extraordinary claims should require extraordinary evidence in the era of the clickbait tale — and it seems in the early summer news slump yesterday, more than one outlet ran off half cocked with a story of resurrection that was actually a heartless trick perpetrated on a grieving family.

Over on Gawker, the story was reported straight:

“A three-year-old Filipino girl pronounced dead last week did a strange thing at her funeral ceremony yesterday: she woke up… The Philippine Starreports on the incident, which was publicized after a video of the funeral went viral and confirmed by the local police department[.]”

The widely circulated video above appears to show the three-year-old girl “waking up” at her own funeral, and it seemed that some confusion ensued over the child’s status.

In the interim, the tale got legs on the internet due to its miraculous claims.

However, while the parents initially were told the child had a pulse, the girl’s grieving mother now says that a “quack” doctor gave the family false hope about the girl’s seemingly unbelievable recovery.

WKRN in Nashville reports:

“On Monday, a local health officer showed Romerate a monitor that showed her daughter had no pulse, according to ABS-CBN News… Doctors suggested the family bury the child because her body is beginning to decompose. The ABC-CBN report said the family is considering burying the baby within the week.”

Wena Romerate is the mother of the little girl, who is said to have died of pneumonia on July 10.

An update to a Facebook page of Filipino news added:

“Update: Earlier today, Dr. Mary Silyne Asor-Cabahug, Municipal Health Officer of Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur, used a cardiac monitor to assess the condition of the 3-year-old girl who woke up during her own funeral. She found no signs of life and confirmed that the child is dead. Dr. Cabahug advised the kid’s parents to bury the dead body soon to prevent diseases.”

The girl was scheduled to be buried on July 12, the day the viral video of her “waking up” was recorded.