In a bizarre incident, a premature baby declared stillborn by doctors was found alive while authorities were preparing for the burial. Though the doctors had confirmed the d.e.a.t.h, the funeral director noticed a running heartbeat and rushed the baby to the hospital again. According to a report in the Mirror, the baby was delivered at home without any medical help. The unidentified 18-year-old mother, who was unaware of the pregnancy, visited a hospital twice after suffering severe stomach pain. On both occasions, the doctors did not notice that she was pregnant and sent her back home after prescribing some medicines, Asianet News reported. The child, who was named Augustus, was born to an 18-year-old mother in the municipality of Ariquemes in the Brazilian state Rondonia.
She was turned away by doctors who did not notice she was pregnant and later gave birth to the baby, weighing 2lbs 3oz, without medical help. The baby was born in the fifth month of the pregnancy and looked very frail. The family rushed the baby to the hospital where doctors declared it stillborn.
After this, the funeral director was called to take the baby’s body for burial preparation. But during preparations, he noticed the baby had a heartbeat and immediately returned the newborn to the hospital where he was placed in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He is understood to be in a stable condition and responding well to treatment. The mother was discharged from the hospital and is recovering at home.
The baby’s grandmother said he was ‘moving a lot’ yesterday. ‘He moved his legs and arms a lot and his heart rate is great’. The funeral director picked up the baby around 3am on Tuesday morning and noticed it was still alive a few hours later as he was preparing for the burial. He noticed Augustus was still alive when he sighed and later checked the newborn’s heart, which was beating, G1 reported. The grandmother said she was ‘outraged’ because she ‘didn’t see that effort of “let’s try to save this child’s life anyway”.’
The Civil Police and the Public Ministry of Rondônia (MP-RO) said they had opened an investigation into the bizarre incident. But the Ariquemes health department has insisted the baby was dead when it arrived at the hospital.
A spokesperson for the department said: ‘For me, it’s a miracle. I saw the doctor talking and she was very clearly telling me that this baby was dead.
‘The funeral home came to get him and he was dead. Somehow that heartbeat came back.’
