Toddler Found Breathing in Hospital Morgue After Being Declared Dead

A toddler discovered in a backyard pool in the US state of Arizona was declared dead before being found breathing hours later in a room that served as the hospital morgue, according to recently released police records.

Two police officers in Phoenix saw possible signs of life multiple times, but the child was still taken to the hospital's "cold room" after being treated by staff, according to the documents.

"Please do your thing and let me do my thing," doctor Aryan Toosi told an officer at one point, according to the report.

First responders were dispatched to the home at about 5:30pm in response to a reported drowning. They performed life-saving measures on the child before taking him to a hospital where the boy was pronounced dead about an hour later.

About five hours later, police were notified that the child was indeed breathing, and he was flown to another hospital. The boy ultimately survived and has been released.

Police are recommending negligence charges against the parents over the incident in February.

Investigators allege there was a strong smell of marijuana at the home and open doors that could have allowed unsupervised access to the pool. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office says it is reviewing the case.

In 911 calls, two relatives frantically reported that the child had been pulled from the pool as people at the scene could be heard shrieking. One caller reported the toddler was unconscious.

Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, where the 18-month-old was taken, said in a statement that the hospital conducted "a thorough review of all aspects of the care provided to learn what happened and to make meaningful changes to strengthen our care".

The hospital called it "a heartbreaking situation" and declined to release further details.

When a team from the local medical examiner's office arrived in the so-called cold room, they found the boy breathing and rushed him to another hospital, police said.

Doctor's lawyer says there's more to know

Scott Holden, Dr Toosi's lawyer, said he would not make a full statement on behalf of the doctor "other than to assure you that there is much more to this case, both factually and medically, than has been reported thus far".

A GoFundMe page, which was created in February to help the boy's family with medical bills, said the toddler would need extensive therapy.

A TV station in Phoenix was the first to report the story.

There have been other cases of people discovered alive after being declared dead.

In Southfield, Michigan, Timesha Beauchamp, a 20-year-old with cerebral palsy, was declared dead by a doctor over the phone in 2020. City paramedics had responded to a 911 call at her family's home.

Later that day, a funeral home opened the body bag and found Ms Beauchamp gasping for air.

She was swiftly taken to a hospital but never recovered and died two months later. Southfield settled a negligence lawsuit filed by the family for $US3.25 million ($4.7 million).

Cases in which someone is mistakenly declared dead and later found to be alive are rare, but they do happen, San Francisco forensic pathologist Judy Melinek said.

"It tends to be much more common in elderly people than in children or toddlers," she said.

"The criteria of death requires no heartbeat, no breathing, and no brain activity or neurological activity."

Dr Melinek said were times when people were breathing very shallowly or intermittently, meaning medical practitioners had to wait a few minutes before the declaration.

She said determining death depended on a doctor's skill and training, and that policies could differ from hospital to hospital.

"It's either someone inexperienced got involved or a policy failure," she said.