An Arizona mother has described the devastating ordeal of learning that her toddler son was still breathing after he had been declared dead and taken to a hospital morgue.
Alexus Fiordilino said February 8 was the worst day of her life. At about 5.30pm, her 18-month-old son, Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino, was found floating face down in the family’s pool in Gilbert, Arizona.
Alexus and her husband, Angelo, immediately attempted to revive the child after finding him foaming at the mouth. Vincent was taken to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead roughly an hour later.
“I just wanted help,” Alexus told ABC 15, recalling that she arrived at the hospital believing, “OK, these people are going to help me.”
Instead, she said, she was soon told to say goodbye to her son. “Do you know how hard that is?” she recalled.
More than five hours after Vincent had been pronounced dead, the toddler was discovered alive in the hospital morgue when a medical examiner’s transport team arrived.
“He ended up in the morgue,” Alexus said. “He was alone.”
Vincent suffered severe brain damage in the incident and will require lifelong care. His family is now questioning the decisions made by the emergency room doctor who treated him that day.
Alexus Fiordilino has described the anguish of discovering that her toddler son was breathing in a hospital morgue after being declared dead
Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino was found floating face down in his family’s pool. Source: GoFundMe
Alexus said Dr Aryan Toosi, the emergency room physician on call, spoke with her just minutes after Vincent arrived and discussed the toddler’s chances of survival.
According to Alexus, the doctor returned five to 10 minutes later and told her Vincent’s pH levels were dangerously high and his blood was too acidic. She recalled him saying that even if the child could be revived, he would have a poor quality of life and suffer, before deciding it was best to declare the time of death.
The distressed mother said she begged doctors to bring her son back before holding Vincent and saying goodbye.
“He was so cold,” she said. “I remember feeling him and being like, ‘He’s so cold.’”
Alexus said her mother-in-law later embraced Vincent and appeared to hear the toddler breathing.
“She’s like, ‘Hey, it sounds like he’s breathing.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’” Alexus recalled.
However, Alexus said medical staff told her that the sound was normal and could be expected.
The sound was apparently attributed to agonal breathing, an involuntary brainstem reflex that can occur when the brain is experiencing severe oxygen deprivation.
Vincent was taken to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center (pictured)
Others, though, also seemed to notice that the child was breathing in the moments before Dr Toosi pronounced him dead.
In a police report previously obtained by the Daily Mail, an officer described how he recalled a nurse saying, ‘I have a pulse,’ and other hospital staffers rushing to assist her ‘in attempting to revive Vincent.’
When the cop then walked into the room where Dr Toosi was talking with the boy’s parents, he informed them of what he had overheard.
But the police officer said the physician responded sharply. He stated in his report: ‘Toosi arrogantly told me he was the doctor, he has a medical degree, he went to medical school for a reason, and to let him do his thing.’
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At that point, Toosi walked back into the emergency room and told staff to stop CPR and other life saving measures on the child, and said: ‘As long as there are no objections, I’d like to call time of death,’ the officer recounted.
The doctor then called Vincent’s time of death at 6.20pm, and six minutes later, Alexus and Angelo were told to say goodbye to their baby boy.
After a Medical Examiner’s transport team discovered Vincent was still breathing, he was rushed to Phoenix Children’s Hospital (pictured). Source: Google Maps
The officer also recalled seeing Vincent’s ‘stomach/chest area rising and falling,’ but staff told them that was the gas leaving his body, investigators detailed.
When medical staff went to move the little boy’s body to the morgue later that night, a female officer recalled that she ‘observed what appeared to be another audible gasp’ coming from the child, the report stated.
Then, when she entered the morgue, the cop said: ‘I again observed what appeared to be a gasp or air release, which was now almost an hour later.’
In other footage obtained by ABC 15, someone could be heard asking: ‘Do we have results on the gas yet?’
The Fiordilino family’s attorney, John Brewer, said Toosi later cited Vincent’s blood gas as part of his medical decision to pronounce the toddler dead.
Records also show Toosi justified not taking Vincent’s core body temperature or performing warming measures due, in part, to the results of the blood gas test.
He then called Vincent’s time of death at 6.20pm, but medical records suggest the doctor did not receive the test results until 6.38pm, 18 minutes after pronouncing Vincent dead.
Alexus Fiordilino shared a photo of her young son in a wheelchair during physical therapy
Once it was discovered that Vincent was alive after being declared dead ‘in error’ by the doctor, the report says the toddler was airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for treatment, where an MRI confirmed he suffered extensive brain damage and will need lifelong care.
‘He was alone,’ Alexus lamented. ‘He was alone for five-and-a-half hours. How do you do that to a baby?’
‘But it, like, doesn’t end,’ she noted, as she shared a photo of her young son in a wheelchair during physical therapy. ‘There’s no, like, happy ending.’
Brewer, the family’s lawyer, said the hospital and doctors now ‘need to make it right for the child,’ arguing there were warning signs and missteps before Vincent was found alive.
‘They took an oath, right?’ Alexus added. ‘They have to do everything they can.’
In a statement to ABC 15, a spokesperson for Dignity Health acknowledged it is a ‘heartbreaking situation.’
‘Out of respect for the patient’s privacy, we cannot share any information and we are unable to comment on those involved in patient care,’ the spokesperson said, while asserting: ‘Patient safety and exception care are our highest priorities.’
Dr Toosi’s attorney Scott Holden also told the Daily Mail that the doctor’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 lawyer said.
‘Due to pending litigation and patient privacy laws, we cannot speak to the details of the care provided at this time.’
Meanwhile, Sgt Jordan Truckenbrod, of the Gilbert Police Department, said: ‘The facts gathered in our investigation, combined with all facts known at this time, did not establish probable cause for any criminal conduct involving medical personnel. As a result, no charges were forwarded against those involved.
‘This case is now in the process of being referred to the Attorney General’s Office for their review,’ he noted. ‘We do not have an estimated timeline for when their review would be completed.’
The Daily Mail has also reached out to Dignity Health and Gilbert Police for comment.