Buenos Aires, Argentina: An Argentine woman who insisted on seeing the presumably lifeless body of her premature baby found the infant alive in the drawer of a hospital morgue.
Authorities say the girl had spent 12 hours in the refrigerated room at the Perrando de Resistencia hospital in northern Argentina.
Analia Bouter told Todo Noticias television that she thought she was hallucinating when she looked at her infant in the morgue drawer and heard a whimper and saw signs of life.
There have been mixed reports about the baby's state of health.
It was reported that doctors said the girl was now in good condition.
However another was quoted on television as saying: "The baby is gravely ill, in critical condition", adding that the infant was born prematurely at six months gestation and weighs only 800 grams.
Analia Bouter was 26 weeks pregnant when she gave birth to her fifth child prematurely at the 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.
Twelve hours later Analia and her husband decided to go to see their baby's body, which was being kept in a refrigerated drawer at the hospital morgue.
Bouter 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.
"She was all covered up and full of something that looked like frost."
Bouter said that her pregnancy was normal until she suddenly went into early labour on April 3.
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.”
She said her daughter was “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.
The hospital's director Jose Luis Meirino said: “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.”
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”.
