A baby born prematurely in western Colombia came back to life, nearly ten hours after the hospital declared her dead and shifted the body to a morgue.
The incident happened last week when Jenny Hurtado, who was 27 weeks pregnant, gave birth to the baby girl on Wednesday morning, at the San Francisco de Asis hospital in Quibdó. The newborn with underdeveloped lungs was officially declared dead around 3. 20 a.m., nearly 35 minutes after she was born. At 6 a.m., the hospital staff placed the baby's body in a small box and moved it to the morgue.
In the afternoon, when the baby's father came to collect the body, he was surprised to see the child move and soon she opened her eyes and cried.
Immediately, the baby was rushed to Santa Teresita del Niño Jesus clinic in the Bogota capital and is currently undergoing treatment at the clinic's intensive care for underdeveloped lungs, Daily Mail reported.
According to doctors, the mistake may have happened due to the inability to detect weak heartbeat of the newborn. "In some cases the noise heart are not noticeable and although the infant is alive, it can be declared dead," Javier Zagarra, a paediatrician told website Semana. "When wrapped in a blanket, receiving heat, the child can be restored."
The parents have named their child Milagros, meaning "miracle".
Miracles have long been part of medical history. In one such rare case, an Argentinian mother found her premature baby alive 12 hours after the hospital declared her dead, last year. Though the miracle baby showed improvement in health, she faced a series of complications like hearing loss, mobility restriction and neurological problems. She died in June after suffering a cardiac arrest.
In another case, a Brazilian newborn named Yasmin was found alive in a chapel, three hours after doctors declared her dead.
