An 18-month-old boy in Arizona was declared dead by a physician after a near-drowning incident, only to be discovered alive nearly six hours later in the hospital morgue, according to police reports and local media accounts.

The child, identified by family as Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino, was pulled unresponsive from a backyard pool during a Super Bowl gathering on 8 February. Emergency responders performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and transported him to Dignity Health Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. At 6:20 p.m., Dr Aryan Toosi pronounced the boy dead, reportedly calling for a moment of silence in the emergency department. However, both the parents and police officers present said they observed the child gasping for air, which medical staff described as agonal breathing—a reflex that can occur after resuscitation and does not indicate life. The body was moved to the morgue at 7:23 p.m. A detective later reported hearing audible sighs, but nurses again attributed these to post-mortem reflexes. At 11:52 p.m., when forensic personnel arrived to retrieve the body, they found the boy breathing and with a pulse. He was airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where he remains on mechanical ventilation but has, according to family fundraising updates, avoided severe brain damage.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is now examining two parallel strands. Gilbert police have recommended child-abuse charges against the parents, who admitted to consuming marijuana on the morning of the accident and are suspected of impaired supervision while watching the game. Separately, the conduct of Dr Toosi is under scrutiny. A police report states that when an officer challenged the death declaration, the doctor replied, “Please do your job and let me do mine. I went to medical school for a reason.” The hospital said it had conducted a thorough review and called the episode “a heartbreaking situation,” pledging to strengthen care protocols. The doctor’s attorney declined to comment in detail but told local media that “there is much more to this case, both factually and medically, than has been reported so far.”

The child continues to receive intensive therapy and monitoring. No criminal charges have been filed against the parents or the physician as the county attorney’s investigation proceeds. The case has drawn attention to the reliability of death determinations in emergency settings and the protocols for verifying signs of life before a body is transferred to a morgue.