Argentine’s ‘miracle’ baby improving

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The Associated Press

A mother in Argentina says she fell to her knees in shock after finding her baby alive in a coffin in the morgue nearly 12 hours after the girl had been declared dead. Analia Bouter named her newborn Luz Milagros, or “Miracle Light.”

The tiny girl, born three months premature, was in critical but improving condition on April 11 in the same hospital where the staff pronounced her stillborn on April 3.

The case became public on April 10 when Rafael Sabatinelli, the deputy health minister in the northern province of Chaco, announced in a news conference that five medical professionals involved have been suspended pending an official investigation.

Bouter told in an interview that doctors gave her the death certificate just 20 minutes after the baby was born, and that she still hasn’t received a birth certificate for her tiny girl. Bouter said the baby was quickly put in a coffin and taken to the morgue’s refrigeration room. Twelve hours passed before she and her husband were able to open the coffin to say their last goodbyes. She said that’s when the baby trembled.

She thought it was her imagination, and then she realized the little girl was alive and dropped to her knees on the morgue floor in shock.

A morgue worker quickly picked up the girl and confirmed she was alive. A week later, the baby is improving.

Bouter said she still has many unanswered questions about what happened. She said she had given birth normally to four other children and doesn’t understand why doctors gave her general anesthesia this time.

She says the family plans to sue the staff at Hospital Perrando in the city of Resistencia for malpractice, and still wants answers.

But they’ve been focused for now on their little girl, whom she described as amazingly healthy.