A toddler was found unresponsive in an Arizona pool and declared dead, only to be later found alive in the hospital’s “cold room,” a newly released police report revealed, per the BBC. The 18-month-old baby’s family called the cops after they found him face down in the pool at a home in the Phoenix-area suburb of Gilbert on February 8.
First responders arrived and performed life-saving measures. The baby was then transported to a hospital and declared dead an hour later.
Doctor’s shocking response
The police report stated that officers told a physician at the hospital, Dr Aryan Toosi, that they had seen signs of life. However, Toosi replied, “Please do your thing and let me do my thing.”
“I went to medical school for a reason,” Toosi said, according to the report.
Police were called to the scene for a reported drowning when a family had gathered to watch the Super Bowl. Gilbert police went to the home around 17:30 MST (00:30 GMT). The child was then rushed to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center and pronounced dead at 18:20.
“If there’s no objections, I’d like to call time of death,” Toosi said, according to police bodycam video obtained by a local NBC News affiliate.
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“Time of death 18:20. Moment of silence,” the doctor said.
However, police said that a transporter from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office arrived at the hospital five hours later and discovered that the child was still breathing. He was flown to a different hospital, and has since recovered and been released.
Medical records for the toddler were not included in the police report. This makes it unclear what exactly happened.
The doctor’s attorney, Scott Holden, told the BBC, “Out of courtesy to the family and patient confidentiality, we respectfully decline to make a statement at this time.”
Police are now calling for negligence charges to be brought against the parents. Investigators found a strong smell of marijuana at the home, prompting them to believe that maybe the child had unsupervised access to the pool.
Mercy Gilbert Medical Center said in a statement that the hospital conducted “a thorough review of all aspects of the care provided to learn what happened and to make meaningful changes to strengthen our care.”
The hospital called it “a heartbreaking situation.”
