BUENOS AIRES -- Doctors in Argentina on Friday struggled to save the life of a baby who was mistakenly declared dead last week and spent 12 hours in a refrigerated hospital morgue before her mother discovered she was alive.
Luz Milagros Veron, who survived in a tiny wooden box in the morgue at Perrando de Resistencia Hospital, on Thursday suffered cardiopulmonary failure and an infection. She was in critical condition and in the neonatal intensive care ward Friday, hospital administrators said.
The baby was born three months premature, weighing slightly more than a pound and apparently stillborn. Doctors at the hospital signed a death certificate and sent her to the morgue.
Before leaving the hospital later that night, her mother Analia Bouter, asked to see her infant’s body one last time. After a hospital worker pried the lid off the box, she heard her frost-covered baby whimper and saw her make slight movements, Bouter later told reporters at a news conference. The baby was in stable condition until her Thursday emergency.
She's an extremely premature baby, 13 days old and weighing 708 grams (1 pound, 5 ounces). She's in a critical state, quite a bit worse than yesterday and at risk of dying," said Diana Vesco, the head of infant care at the Perrando Hospital, where the baby was born.
"Yesterday she had an episode with a hemorrhage in the lungs, which required us to increase artificial respiration. Her heart and breathing stopped. She required advanced CPR," Vesco told Reuters.
Five hospital workers involved in the case have been suspended.
Argentina has been captivated by Luz Milagros' plight since it came to light on Tuesday.
"We believe that if our daughter has gotten this far, despite everything, it's because she's here to stay," Luz Milagros' father, Fabian Veron, told reporters.
The child's mother spoke by telephone on Wednesday with President Cristina Fernandez. "She told me this shows that miracles do happen," Bouter told Clarin newspaper.
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