How sad...they lost their baby twice... :-(

[Catty1]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/i...israel_baby_dc

Baby pronounced dead lives after hours in cooler
Mon Aug 18, 3:53 PM

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A stillborn Israeli baby who was pronounced dead by doctors "came back to life" on Monday after spending hours in a hospital refrigerator.

The baby, weighing only 600 grams at birth, spent at least five hours inside one of the hospital's refrigerated storage units, before her parents, who had taken her to be buried, began noticing some movement.

"We unwrapped her and felt she was moving. We didn't believe it at first. Then she began holding my mother's hand, and then we saw her open her mouth," said 26-year-old Faiza Magdoub, the baby's mother.

The baby was pronounced dead several hours earlier, after doctors at Western Galilee hospital in northern Israel were forced to abort her mother's pregnancy because of internal bleeding. Magdoub was 23 weeks into her pregnancy.

"We don't know how to explain this, so when we don't know how to explain things in the medical world we call it a miracle, and this is probably what happened," hospital deputy director Moshe Daniel said.

The baby was then taken to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit for further treatment, but doctors were not sure how long she will live.

Motti Ravid, a professor of internal medicine, told Israel's Channel 10 that the low temperature inside the cooler had slowed down the baby's metabolism and likely helped her survive.

(Writing by Avida Landau, Editing by Mike Collett-White)

update

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405961,00.html

'Stillborn' Baby Found Alive in Morgue Fridge Dies

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

JERUSALEM — Doctors say a premature baby girl who survived six hours in a hospital morgue refrigerator after being declared stillborn has died despite efforts to save her.

The baby had been delivered in the 23rd week of pregnancy at a weight of just one pound, five ounces and was initially declared dead and placed in the morgue.

When the parents came to collect the tiny body for burial on Monday they found the baby breathing and showing a faint heartbeat and she was rushed to the intensive care unit.

Hospital deputy director Moshe Daniel said the child died early Tuesday. He told Army Radio the specific cause of death would only be known after a post-mortem examination.

[Twisterdog]

That is indeed very sad.

I wonder, though, if some good might come of this for other babies. I know conventional medical wisdom says to keep tiny babies warm ... sounds like being cool might actually help more in some cases. Maybe other babies will survive because of medical knowledge gained from this terrible incident.

[Catty1]

I don't think it is detailed in this article - but no fetal heartbeat was detected before the surgery, and there were no signs of life after it either. The baby was dead, as far as anyone could tell.

One person has postulated that the cold allowed some vital signs to emerge, in sort of the same way that people are put in an induced coma after suffering significant trauma...not sure how that works.

But she is gone again...poor wee thing. Israel has fantastic medical facilities, and I don't doubt they did try everything.

[Laura's Babies]

Gee! That is something they really need to study! Seemingly dead before birth and afterwards, then ALIVE? RIP little one...

[Medusa]

It is sad, to be sure, but somehow I see wonder in all of it. It's as though this little life was under water and came up to the surface, gasped for air and breathed the breath of life, then slipped back under, almost as though it had to fulfill its assignment here on earth as a living being. Tragic but wondrous nonetheless. RIP, sweet little one and peace to the parents.