Arizona toddler found alive in hospital morgue after being declared dead

GILBERT, Ariz. – An 18-month-old Gilbert toddler is making a remarkable recovery after being found alive in a hospital morgue hours after being declared dead.

The backstory:

On Sunday, Feb. 8, the toddler was found unresponsive in a pool. He was rushed to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, where Dr. Toosi eventually declared him dead at 6:20 p.m. However, nearly five hours later, just before midnight, he was found breathing again inside the hospital morgue.

An independent physician not involved in this patient’s care, Dr. Andrew Carroll, who serves as IntraCare chief medical officer, noted the anomaly of the situation.

“This happens extremely rarely. Let’s make that straight. This doesn’t happen often,” Carroll said.

Although blurred and heavily redacted, police body camera footage shows officers responding to the home and starting resuscitation efforts. The child was rushed to the hospital where Dr. Toosi declared the time of death.

A Gilbert toddler is recovering after being found breathing inside a hospital morgue hours after a doctor declared him dead.

Dig deeper:

According to the police report, parents and police warned hospital staff the boy still seemed to be breathing, noting he was gasping for air even after he was declared dead.

At one point, according to the report, Dr. Toosi told a detective that “he was the doctor” and to “let him do his thing.” Staff continued to assure family and detectives that the breathing they were seeing was just a byproduct of the resuscitation efforts.

“Sometimes the air can get into the intestine and into the stomach and as a body starts to die, that air comes out of the intestine,” Carroll said.

However, at some point, the boy did start breathing again and was taken to Phoenix Children’s for further treatment. A GoFundMe page for the family states that an MRI days after the incident showed no brain damage, but he is continuing to recover.

“Infants are very different than adults. Having an adult fall in the pool for 15 minutes and expecting that they are going to live past that is very unlikely, but infants have special survival mechanisms that help save them and so let’s take into account that little miracle that we are all born with, and hopefully this child has no knowledge or residuals from this accident,” Carroll said.

An attorney for Dr. Toosi declined to comment, citing patient confidentiality.

In a statement, Mercy Gilbert Medical Center called this a “heartbreaking situation,” adding they have launched a review into the patient’s care.

What’s next:

Gilbert Police submitted charges of child abuse with criminal negligence for the toddler’s parents because police reports say they were smoking marijuana at the time of the incident. The county attorney’s office is reviewing these charges.