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A 'stillborn' baby was found alive in a drawer in a
hospital morgue by her distressed mother 12 hours after the girl was
declared dead, it emerged today.
Analia Bouter was 26 weeks pregnant when she gave birth to her fifth
child prematurely at a hospital in Resistencia, in Argentina's northern
Chaco province.
But after medical staff told her that the infant was born with no vital
signs, her distraught parents went home with a death certificate.
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Twelve hours later, Mrs Bouter and her husband decided to go to see
their baby's body, which was being kept in a refrigerated drawer at the
Perrando hospital morgue.
She told Argentina's Clarin newspaper: ‘That night, we went to the
morgue. We wanted to take a photo of our daughter.
'But when a worker opened the drawer, we heard a cry and she was alive.’
She said she ‘stepped back and fell to my knees’ after she ‘saw her
stretching,' the mother added.
‘My baby was born at 10.24am and at 11.05am was already in the drawer.
She spent 12 hours in the freezing cold of that morgue. I saw for myself
the ice on her body.’
Mrs Bouter said that her pregnancy was normal until she suddenly went
into early labour on April 3.
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She said: ‘At first the doctors said that she was born dead, then said
she had died shortly after birth because she was too small to survive.
‘I don't know who is to blame, and I'm not thinking about it at this
moment. The joy of knowing she's alive is covering every other feeling.
I'm a Christian, and I believe this was a miracle of God.’
And she said that her daughter is ‘getting stronger by the minute’.
The parents, who were going to call their daughter Luciana Abigail, said
she will now be baptised Luz Milagros, which means Light Miracles.
Meanwhile, the Perrando hospital has suspended the medical staff
involved in the birth while they conduct an investigation.
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The hospital's director Jose Luis Meirino said: ‘At the moment we have
no explanation.
'The baby was attended to by obstetricians, gynaecologists and a
neonatologist. They all reached the same conclusion, that this girl was
stillborn.’
He said that hypothermia may have caused the baby to go into a type of
hibernation, causing her vital signs to vanish completely.
Rafael Sabatinelli, health secretary for Argentina's Chaco province,
called the case ‘disgraceful’ and promised a full investigation.
He said: ‘Every member of the team that was involved has some
responsibility, so they will have to answer for this.’ |
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