‘Dead’ baby wakes before cremation

BEIJING: A baby less than a month old was pronounced dead but woke minutes before it was to be cremated, local reports say.

The boy, born in China on January 8, was two months premature, and spent 23 days in an incubator in Pan’an People’s Hospital in the province of Zhejiang.

Despite recommendations that he stay in an incubator for a month, his parents took him home early for Chinese New Year, according to Zhejiang Television’s Channel Six. After two days the baby fell ill, and was taken back to the hospital for emergency care.

Doctors declared him dead on February 4 and he spent 23 hours in a morgue refrigerator at temperatures of -12°C .

The next day, when pulled out of the refrigerator by a worker to be cremated, the baby reportedly began to cry.

The worker cancelled the cremation and contacted the father.

The doctor who reportedly pronounced the boy dead expressed bewilderment.

“I really can’t understand how this miracle happened,” he said.

The director of the hospital said staff should have confirmed the baby’s death a second time before issuing a death certificate.

The doctor said that although the baby was being given emergency care, his odds of survival were low. – The Independent