Arizona mom speaks out after toddler thought dead was found alive in morgue

The Arizona mother of a toddler who was found alive in a morgue hours after he was pronounced dead following a drowning incident is speaking out.

In July, police told Global News that a toddler who was declared dead in hospital after a drowning incident at a backyard pool in Gilbert, Ariz., was later discovered alive by medical staff.

First responders were called to a home in the Phoenix suburb at about 5:30 p.m. local time on Feb. 8, where they attempted life-saving measures on the toddler before taking him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, investigators said.

Gilbert police officers and fire personnel who attended the scene saw possible signs of life, the Associated Press reported, but the child was still taken to the hospital’s “cold room” after being treated by its staff, police documents obtained by the outlet noted.

About five hours after the boy was pronounced dead, police were informed that the child was found to be alive by a team of medical examiners, at which time he was transported from the “cold room” to another hospital, where he was treated and later released.

Now, the mother of the then 18-month-old child, named Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino, is speaking out for the first time following the incident.

Alexus Fiordilino told ABC15 that her child “ended up in the morgue,” adding, “he was alone.”

“I just wanted to help,” Fiordilino said. “I remember getting there and just being like, ‘OK, these people are going to help me.'”

She called Feb. 8 “one of the worst days” of her life.

“I had to say goodbye,” she said. “Do you know how hard that is?”

Fiordilino described what happened when she went to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center and remembered the emergency room doctor, Dr. Aryan Toosi, coming to speak to her about “next steps.”

“He comes back, like, maybe not even five, 10 minutes later,” Fiordilino said. “And he’s like, yeah, so his pH levels are too high. They’re too acidic. So even if we are to bring him back, it wouldn’t be a good form of life. He’d just be suffering. So, I think it’s best that I call the time for it.”

Fiordilino said she remembered giving her son a hug as she said her goodbyes.

“My mother-in-law is there, and she goes over, and she hugs him,” Fiordilino recalled. “And she’s like, ‘Hey, It sounds like he’s breathing.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s normal. It’s normal that it’s going to sound like that.'”

Hours later, her son was found alive in the hospital morgue and rushed to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

“He was alone, though,” Fiordilino said. “He was alone for five and a half hours. How do you do that to a baby?”

Fiordilino told NBC News that her son is “getting better.”

Fiordilino’s lawyer, John Brewer told the outlet, that Vincent “is severely brain-injured.”

“He can’t swallow. He seizes up. He can’t sit up on his own or crawl,” Brewer added.

Brewer also said that he plans to file a formal complaint against Toosi and the hospital.

“The parents were faced with having to decide whether to keep trying to revive their son, and the doctor provided them with false information,” Brewer said. “That’s beyond a conscious disregard for human life.”

In a statement to Global News, Tossi’s lawyer, Scott Holden, said, “Dr. Toosi’s thoughts are with the young patient and family, and he wishes the child continued healing and recovery.”

“His commitment to delivering high-quality care has always been rooted in a desire to provide healing, safety and comfort to his community,” the statement added. “Due to pending litigation and patient privacy laws, we cannot speak to the details of the care provided at this time.”

Police previously told Global News in July that based on the facts of the investigation, one charge of child or vulnerable adult abuse was recommended to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for both the mother and father of the victim.

Prosecutors later “determined that this case did not meet our charging standard of ‘reasonable likelihood of conviction.”

“To file charges, the state would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a unanimous jury that the parents failed to recognize a substantial and unjustifiable risk, and that this failure was such a serious lapse in judgment that it was a gross deviation from what a reasonable person would have done under the same circumstances,” officials said.

“That’s a much higher legal standard than probable cause, which is what police need to submit a case for possible charges,” officials added.

A GoFundMe, which was set up in February to help the family cover the cost of the boy’s medical bills, said the child’s organs had begun shutting down shortly after he was found alive and that early medical scans showed signs of brain damage.

“Thank you for your prayers, your kindness, and your support for baby Vincent—our miracle fighter,” the fundraising page also says.

The GoFundMe post has raised more than $24,000 of its $28,000 goal from more than 400 donations as of Thursday afternoon

—With files from Global News’ Rachel Goodman and The Associated Press