Mother Finds 'Stillborn' Baby Alive After 12 Hours in Morgue
A mother has been left stunned after being told by hospital staff that her baby, born three months premature, had died and been taken to the morgue – only to later discover she was still alive.
Mother, Analia Bouter, gave birth to her daughter three months early in Argentina, and doctors tragically broke the news to her that the baby girl was stillborn, with no vital signs. She was subsequently placed in the morgue. However, in a shocking twist, when Bouter and her husband went to see her one last time, they were stunned to discover their daughter was actually alive.
Bouter was 26 weeks pregnant when she went into labor and delivered the infant. While the odds of survival were not high, babies born at this time have been known to survive with immediate neonatal care. In this instance doctors were unable to find vital signs for Bouter's daughter, and she was placed in the hospital's refrigerated morgue.
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"That night, we went to the morgue," Bouter told Argentina's Clarin newspaper. "We wanted to take a photo of our daughter, but when a worker opened the drawer, we heard a cry and she was alive. I stepped back and fell to my knees after I saw her stretching," she said.
The baby girl had spent over 12 hours in the morgue, and Bouter told the paper she saw for herself "the ice on her body." She was immediately taken back to the ward and given urgent medical attention, and the hospital is now launching its own investigation into the shocking error. Doctors have expressed that they are astonished that the girl survived.
"At the moment we have no explanation. The baby was attended to by obstetricians, gynecologists, and a neonatologist. They all reached the same conclusion, that this girl was stillborn," explained hospital director Jose Luis Meirino. Hypothermia, he said, may have caused the newborn's vital signs to slow to an undetectable rate.
The family is simply happy to have their baby girl back, alive and well. Bouter has told the papers that she is "getting stronger by the minute." They have chosen to name her Luz Milagros, which means Light Miracles in Spanish.
