'Miracle' morgue baby improving in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

Analia Bouter and her husband Fabian …

 (AP) — A mother in Argentina says she fell to her knees in shock after finding her baby alive in a coffin in the morgue nearly 12 hours after the girl had been declared dead.

Analia Bouter named her newborn Luz Milagros, or "Miracle Light." The tiny girl, born three months premature, was in critical but improving condition Wednesday in the same hospital where the staff pronounced her stillborn on April 3.

The case became public Tuesday when Rafael Sabatinelli, the deputy health minister in the northern province of Chaco, announced in a news conference that five medical professionals involved have been suspended pending an official investigation.

Bouter told the TeleNoticias TV channel in an interview Tuesday night that doctors gave her the death certificate just 20 minutes after the baby was born, and that she still hasn't received a birth certificate for her tiny girl.

Bouter said the baby was quickly put in a coffin and taken to the morgue's refrigeration room. Twelve hours passed before she and her husband were able to open the coffin to say their last goodbyes.

Analia Bouter, right, poses for a photo with friends outside the hospital in Resistencia, Argentina

She said that's when the baby trembled. She thought it was her imagination — then she realized the little girl was alive and dropped to her knees on the morgue floor in shock.

A morgue worker quickly picked up the girl and confirmed she was alive. Then, Bouter's brother grabbed the baby and ran to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, shouting for the doctors. The baby was so cold, Bouter said, that "it was like carrying a bottle of ice."

A week later, the baby is improving. Bouter said she still has many unanswered questions about what happened. She said she had given birth normally to four other children and doesn't understand why doctors gave her general anesthesia this time. She said she also doesn't know why she wasn't allowed to see her baby before it was put into a coffin.

She said she had to insist on going to the morgue's refrigeration room, where she brought her sister's cellphone to take a picture of the newborn for the funeral. Her husband struggled to open the lid, and then stepped aside to let her see inside.

"I moved the coverings aside and saw the tiny hand, with all five fingers, and I touched her hand and then uncovered her face," she said in the TeleNoticias interview. "That's where I heard a tiny little cry. I told myself I was imagining it — it was my imagination. And then I stepped back and saw her waking up. It was as if she was saying 'Mama, you came for me!'

"That was when I fell to my knees. My husband didn't know what to do. We were just crying and I laughed and cried, cries and laughter. We must have seemed crazy."

She says the family plans to sue the staff at Hospital Perrando in the city of Resistencia for malpractice, and still wants answers. But they've been focused for now on their little girl, whom she described as amazingly healthy despite being born after just 26 weeks of gestation. So far, she hasn't needed oxygen or other support commonly provided to preemies, she said.

"I'm a believer. All of this was a miracle from God," she told Telam, Argentina's state news agency.
http://news.yahoo.com/miracle-morgue-baby-improving-argentina-220714776.html;_ylt=AgrzW_S1QEchDfYoq4L0wVASH9EA;_

Newborn baby found alive in morgue 12 hours after being declared dead

By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow



A newborn in Romania (AP/Vadim Ghirda)
A newborn in Argentina was found very much alive in a morgue by her mother 12 hours after hospital staff had declared the baby dead.

The mother, Analia Bouguet, tells TeleNoticias TV that the hospital still has issued her only a death certificate for the infant rather than a birth certificate. Bouguet said she is planning to pursue a medical malpractice suit.

The Daily Mail reports that the baby was Bouguet's fifth and was born prematurely.

Two hours after being issue a death certificate, Bouguet and her husband visited the morgue because they wanted to see their child one more time.

"The baby was there and they put the little casket on a stretcher. We looked for a bar to pry it open," the baby's father, Fabian Veron, said in a press conference. "My wife looked and uncovered it slowly. She saw the little hand and then uncovered the face. That's when it let the first little cry out."

"That night, we went to the morgue. We wanted to take a photo of our daughter," Bouguet told Argentina's Clarin newspaper. "But when a worker opened the drawer, we heard a cry and she was alive."

The newborn has been named Luz Milagros, or "Miracle Light." She is still listed as being in critical condition but is said to be improving. The deputy provincial health minister announced that five medical professionals involved in the case have been suspended, pending further investigation.

"At the moment we have no explanation," hospital director Jose Luis Meirino told the paper. "The baby was attended to by obstetricians, gynecologists and a neonatologist. They all reached the same conclusion, that this girl was stillborn."


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/newborn-baby-found-alive-morgue-12-hours-being-175501352.html

Doctor says she 'sees babies lost because of smoking'

 By Jim Taylor
              Newsbeat reporter

"This is a day to day reality for me. I see babies being lost to smoking."

Dr Shonag Mackenzie is an obstetrician based at Wansbeck General Hospital in Northumberland.

It's her job to deal with the impact of smoking during pregnancy in an area with one of the highest smoking rates in the UK.

"Cigarettes have about 4,000 chemicals in them but the one that seems to affect babies is carbon monoxide.

"We can prove there's a direct chemical effect. The more you smoke, the more likely you are to harm the baby."

Around 120,000 of the 700,000 babies born each year in England and Wales are born to women who smoke.

Younger mums are the least likely to quit when they get pregnant.

This issue's been in the press lately after Stacey Solomon was photographed smoking while pregnant.So what are the dangers? And how big is the risk?

· Miscarriage: Doctors estimate that around 5,000 miscarriages in the UK each year are linked to smoking.

· Still-birth: It is thought that smoking causes a third of still-births and deaths among very young babies, affecting about 300 babies each year.

· Premature & small babies: Smokers are more likely to give birth early and to have lighter babies who may have problems developing as they grow up.

· Deformed limbs have also been linked to smoking.

But there are other reasons why a woman may suffer problems like these during pregnancy and it is often difficult to prove that smoking was the main factor.

Also, in most cases, smokers will give birth to healthy babies who grow up without any problems.

"But just because your mum smoked with you, or even if you've had healthy children yourself while you smoked, that doesn't mean your next pregnancy won't be affected," says Dr Mackenzie.There are other things to think about

· Passive smoking: Even if mum doesn't smoke, other smokers in the house can have an impact on an unborn baby

· Children born to smokers are more likely to smoke themselves when they grow up

· Smoking in the house with a baby increases the risk of cot death

Dr Mackenzie sometimes has to tell young women that smoking may have led to their baby's death.

"We have to be honest. If a woman has a baby who dies, she always blames herself. That's human nature.

"But if there has been a contributing factor like smoking you have to tell them.

"Then you can help them stop smoking for a future pregnancy."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17430533