A newborn baby girl is found alive after she was pronounced dead in a hospital in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday.
The baby girl was born before 6 a.m. EST on a sidewalk just 500 metres away from the hospital, where the mother had tried to make it to the hospital as she had been going through contractions. The temperature was 16 degrees below freezing.
According to the Toronto’s Star, the baby’s mother felt ill and set off with her own mother for the hospital on Finch Ave. W. near Hwy. 400.
“She wasn’t feeling well and she and her mother were walking to the hospital,” said Toronto police Const. Wendy Drummond.
But the pregnant woman didn't make it to the hospital in time. She went into labour and had the baby out there on the sidewalk.
Drummond said the woman called 911, and police and paramedics arrived shortly. They hustled the baby, along with the woman and her mother, into an ambulance and brought them to the hospital.
Medical staffs tried to revive the infant, but she was pronounced dead shortly after and was covered with a sheet. About 90 minutes later, two Toronto police officers assigned to guard the body while awaiting the coroner, and one of them noticed that the sheet was moving and contacted the hospital staff.
Both the mother and baby are now recovering in the hospital and are in stable condition.
Humber River Regional Hospital has released a statement saying it is "reviewing all procedures followed in the care" of the newborn infant.
"The review is looking at all aspects of care provided in this case, including the extensive resuscitation efforts by hospital physicians and staff beginning in the ambulance itself when it arrived at the hospital," said the hospital spokesman Gerard Power.
"The review will be conducted in consultation with all appropriate agencies, including Toronto police and EMS. The Ministry of Health has been informed as well," he said.
Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews told CBC News that she looks forward to the hospital review and wants to make sure something like this never happens again.
