'Dead' baby found alive in morgue coffin after 12 hrs

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2012-04-12

A stillborn baby girl in Argentina was discovered breathing 12 hours after she was buried in a coffin.

The parents of the girl, who was born three months premature, revealed that they found she was alive when they went to the local morgue to bid goodbye.

Analia Bouter insisted that she never got a chance to look at her baby after the birth as she had been sedated by staff at the hospital in Chaco, northern Argentina.

"At the time of birth I don't remember much because I was put to sleep," Sky News quoted her as saying.

"Rather, they never showed me the baby."

Born at 10.24am, the infant was taken directly to the morgue after apparently being pronounced dead.

Bouter and her husband, Fabian Veron, visited the morgue afterwards where they say they forced open the tiny coffin to look at their daughter.

"The baby was there and they put the little casket on a stretcher. We looked for a bar to prise it open. The casket was nailed shut," Veron said.

"I started to prise, took a deep breath and took the top off. My wife was the first one to look at the body and she uncovered it slowly.

"She saw the little hand and then uncovered the face. That's when it let the first little cry out. My wife jumped back, like saying, 'This must be my imagination'."

The baby girl, born a week ago, was reported to be in stable condition on Tuesday.

The parents had initially planned on naming her Liliana Abigail but have instead called her Luz Milagros - which means Miracle's Light.

"I went back to look again and she was moving. So I started to uncover the face and it was like she was just getting up, waking up," Veron said.

"And that's when the lady from the morgue grabbed her and brought her," Veron added.

Provincial health officials have confirmed that they are investigating the incident.

Source: South America News.Net