Was a Paraguayan baby declared dead, found breathing during wake?
A premature baby who was declared dead and sent home for burial, woke up during his own funeral hours later. The 1.10 pound baby boy was born 16 weeks premature at an Asuncion, Paraguay hospital. After an hour of attempting to revive the baby, doctors declared him dead. The family was given a death certificate and cardboard box to serve as a makeshift coffin. The infant was taken home to be dressed for the funeral when he began moving and crying. The family rushed the baby back to the hospital. Dr. Ernesto Weber, the head of pediatric care at the hospital, says they initially declared the infant dead because he didn’t have respiratory reflexes. “Initially, the baby didn’t move, he practically didn’t have any respiratory reflexes, nor did we hear a heartbeat and, as a result, we declared a premature fetus of 24 weeks dead,” Weber explains. The baby boy is now in stable condition at the hospital. Sources:
Paraguayan baby declared dead, found breathing during wake Last Updated: Saturday, August 8, 2009 | 12:27 PM ET Comments57Recommend82 CBC News A Paraguayan father mourning the death of his premature baby was shocked to learn his son was still alive when he heard crying coming from the temporary box holding the infant’s supposed remains. “I opened it to look at his remains and found that the baby was breathing,” Jose Alvarenga, 25, recounted. “I began to cry.” The infant, born nearly three months early on Thursday and weighing just over a pound, was rushed back to the same hospital, Central del Instituto de Previsión Social, where he had been born hours before. Staff there had reportedly spent an hour trying to revive him after birth but declared him dead after being unable to detect any vital signs. The father says he was at the family home in Fernando de la Mora for the baby’s wake when he reportedly heard crying from the box. The mother, Isabel Rossana Cáceres, 24, was still in hospi
