Arizona toddler found alive in morgue hours after being declared dead

New police records and body-camera video show 18-month-old Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino was pronounced dead in the morgue at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. Gilbert police officers documented possible breathing and gasping before the child was moved to the hospital’s cold room, a space also used as the morgue.

In February on Super Bowl Sunday, Vincent was discovered in the family’s pool and rushed to Mercy Gilbert in Gilbert, Arizona. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. and found breathing at 11:52 p.m. that same night, more than five hours later.

Police records show two Gilbert officers saw signs of life multiple times before the child was taken to the morgue. One officer later wrote that the boy had been pronounced dead “in error” after a tense exchange with the doctor. The officers tried to alert the physician to the child’s condition, but the toddler still ended up in the cold room after treatment by staff.

Gilbert police recommended child abuse charges against the parents, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is investigating. Police reports also raised the possibility that marijuana or other mind-altering substances had impaired the parents’ state of mind; both admitted smoking marijuana the morning of the drowning.

Mercy Gilbert Medical Center conducted an internal investigation into what it called a “heartbreaking situation,” but has not publicly released the findings. Records identify the physician as Aryan Toosi, an osteopathic doctor licensed in Arizona and listed in the police report as A. Toosi, with an affiliation to Chandler Regional Medical Center in the same hospital network. Public records show no disciplinary actions on his license.

Vincent survived and has since been released from the hospital.