Distressed mom recalls horror of toddler being pronounced dead, before hes discovered alive in morgue: I had to say goodbye

An Arizona mom has spoken out about the horror of having her toddler pronounced dead, only to learn he was still alive inside a hospital morgue hours after she was forced to bid him a premature farewell.Alexus Fiordilino told ABC 15 in a sit-down interview on Monday that Feb.8 was the worst day of her life after finding her 18-month-old boy, Vincent, floating face down in the pool at her Gilbert, Ariz., home.“I had to say goodbye,” she said, adding “do you know how hard that is?”Five hours after he was found, the tot was pronounced dead — only to be discovered alive in the morgue when a medical examiner’s transport arrived at the hospital.“He ended up in the morgue,” Alexus told the outlet. “He was alone.”He suffered serious brain damage and will require assistance for the rest of his life, ABC reported.When her son arrived at the emergency room following the near-drowning, Fiordilino says that doctors at the hospital told her that even if he was resuscitated, his life would never be the same.

“He comes back, like maybe not even five, 10 minutes later and he’s like ‘yeah so it’s pH levels are too high,” she said of Dr.Aryan Toosi.“They’re too acidic.

So even if we are to bring him back, it wouldn’t be a good form of life,” the doctor reportedly said.“‘He’d be suffering.

So I think it’s best that I call the time for it.’”Fiordilino says that her son was ice cold when doctors were trying to save him.“He was so cold,” she said.“I remember feeling him and being like, ‘he’s so cold.’”Fiordilino said the toddler was initially breathing in the hospital room before he was erroneously pronounced dead — but hospital staff dismissed it as agonal breathing.Fiordilino said her mother-in-law noticed signs on life.“’She’s like, ‘Hey, it sounds like he’s breathing.’ And I’m like, ‘What?”‘ Fiordilino told the ABC 15.

Hospital staff told her that “it’s normal that it’s going to sound like...