Boy mistakenly declared dead after drowning found alive in morgue
Translated from Croatian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
At a glance
- An 18-month-old boy in Arizona was mistakenly declared dead after being found unresponsive in a swimming pool.
- Medical staff at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center pronounced the child dead, but an investigator later found the boy was still breathing.
- The child was transported to another hospital, recovered, and has since been released home; police are recommending charges against the parents for neglect.
An 18-month-old boy in Arizona, found unresponsive in a swimming pool, was mistakenly declared dead by medical staff, only to be discovered alive hours later in a hospital "cold room." The shocking incident unfolded on February 8 in Gilbert, a suburb of Phoenix, when the boy's family discovered him face down in the pool and called for help.
Please do your job and let me do mine.
Emergency responders arrived and initiated life-saving measures before transporting the child to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. Approximately an hour later, a doctor, identified as Dr. Aryan Toosi, pronounced the child dead at 6:20 p.m. According to a police report, officers noted signs of life, to which the doctor reportedly responded, "Please do your job and let me do mine."
Five hours after being declared deceased, an official from the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner arrived at the hospital and determined the boy was still breathing. He was then airlifted to a different hospital, where he recovered and was subsequently released. The medical examiner's office has not yet stated whether charges will be filed.
I finished medical school for a reason.
Police are recommending charges against the parents for neglect, citing a strong smell of marijuana in the home that led them to suspect the child may have had unsupervised access to the pool. Mercy Gilbert Medical Center stated it has conducted a thorough review of the care provided and declined to comment further on the "heartbreaking situation."
There is much more to this case, both factually and medically, than has been released so far.
Originally published by Veฤernji List in Croatian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.