Miracle Morgue Baby’s Condition Improving, Mom Says

Yesterday, the story of a premature baby who had somehow survived more than twelve hours in a morgue freezer made international headlines as the “miracle morgue baby’s” mom’s story of finding her daughter alive and icy in a drawer half a day after the child was declared dead was translated for news outlets across the world.

Mom Analia Bouter has four healthy children, but she went into labor three months early with her fifth child, the little girl now named Luz Milagros. Bouter explains that following the birth, her daughter was declared dead. Instead of taking her baby home, she and her husband returned with a death certificate citing “unknown causes” and broken hearts.

But Bouter, in her grief, insisted upon taking a picture of the little girl. At the morgue, she visited the drawer that held what she believed was her daughter’s body, and “fell to [her] knees” when the coffin was opened and she observed the ice-cold baby move and breathe.

Little Luz Milagros was pronounced dead on April 3rd, but the case became widely known when Chaco province’s deputy health chief Rafael Sabatinelli announced that five hospital employees had been suspended while the incident is investigated. And it may surprise you to learn where the baby resides now, according to her mom- in the same hospital that erroneously declared her dead earlier this month.

In an interview with TeleNoticias, Bouter tells a story that is moving and terrifying, saying:

“I moved the coverings aside and saw the tiny hand, with all five fingers, and I touched her hand and then uncovered her face. 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!’

The miracle morgue baby is now in critical condition, and Bouter says the family plans to sue the hospital for medical malpractice.