An 18-month-old Arizona boy pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday was found breathing at 11:52 p.m. in a hospital morgue.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is investigating the near-drowning, and the Gilbert Police Department said, "The child ultimately survived and has been released from the hospital." The department recommended that the boy's parents be charged with child abuse, and a police report said the parents "may have not realized" he wandered to the pool because "the potential of both parent's state of mind being impaired by marijuana and/or other mind altering substances," adding that "Both admitted to smoking marijuana the morning of the drowning."
Mercy Gilbert Medical Center confirmed it had conducted an internal investigation into what it called a "heartbreaking situation," but the hospital has not revealed the results of its probe and declined to answer questions about whether the doctor who pronounced the boy dead remains on staff. The police report identifies the doctor as A. Toosi and quotes him as saying, "Please do your thing and let me do my thing," and "I went to medical school for a reason," when questioned about his decision to pronounce the boy dead. A doctor named Aryan Toosi is identified in available reports as being affiliated with the hospital; his lawyer, Scott Holden, did not return a call or text for comment about the case.
The sequence began about 5:38 p.m. with a 911 call after the boy was found floating face down in the family pool and a relative performed CPR, the police report says. He was rushed to the Mercy Gilbert emergency room, where an ER team that included Toosi took over the effort to save him. At 6:13 p.m., the report says, Toosi was seen checking the time on "a cell phone with a cheetah print orange and black case" before he went out to deliver bad news to the parents.
Minutes later, the report says, Toosi had words with a Gilbert police officer who questioned his diagnosis and then returned to the ER and said, "As long as there are no objections, I'd like to call time of death." Police officers and the parents said the child still appeared to be gasping after he was declared dead, and at about 7:18 p.m. a detective on the scene reported hearing "another audible gasp" as ER workers prepared to move the boy to the cold room. The detective later "again observed what appeared to be a gasp or air release," and a nurse described the breathing as "agonal" and attributed it to compressions, oxygen and possible pressure applied by family members while saying goodbye, the report states. The cold room door was closed at 7:23 p.m.
More than four hours later, when the medical examiner's team arrived at 11:52 p.m. to retrieve the boy, he was found breathing, the report states; the family was notified immediately and the boy was airlifted to Phoenix Children's Hospital. A crowdfunding page set up by the family says the child is still breathing with the assistance of a ventilator, has avoided serious brain damage and will require ongoing medical monitoring and extensive therapy.
A spokesperson for the county attorney declined to comment on the case.