Arizona Toddler Mistakenly Declared Dead Found Breathing in Hospital Morgue
An Arizona toddler mistakenly declared dead after a near-drowning was found breathing in the hospital morgue over five hours later, suffering severe brain damage.
A toddler from Arizona, who was mistakenly declared dead after a near-drowning incident, was found breathing in the hospital's morgue over five hours later. The incident occurred on February 8, 2026, during a family gathering in Gilbert, Arizona, when one-year-old Vincent Fiordilino was found floating face-down in a backyard swimming pool.
Emergency responders performed CPR and rushed the child to a local hospital, where an emergency room physician pronounced him dead at 6:20 PM. According to police records and bodycam footage, family members and responding officers later noticed signs of possible breathing, but medical staff initially attributed these to post-mortem physiological reactions and transferred the toddler to the hospital's mortuary cooler.
At 11:52 PM, when forensic investigators arrived to collect the body, they discovered that the child was still breathing. Vincent was immediately rushed to a children's hospital in Phoenix for urgent medical care. Although he was discharged in April, his attorneys report that he suffers from severe permanent brain damage and neurological impairments, unable to walk independently or speak.
The family's legal representatives argue that the hours spent in the morgue without medical attention exacerbated his injuries. Gilbert police stated that the investigation did not uncover sufficient grounds for criminal charges against the medical staff, and the case has been forwarded to the Arizona Attorney General's Office for further review. The hospital declined to comment on specific treatment details, citing patient privacy.
