Overview
- Police records and released body-worn camera video show an 18-month-old was pulled from a backyard pool on Feb. 8, taken to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, and pronounced dead at about 6:20 p.m.
- Officers and nurses documented repeated signs of life, including audible gasps and a nurse saying she felt a pulse, while the attending physician ordered life-saving measures stopped and the child moved to the hospital 'cold room' used for deceased patients.
- Maricopa County medical examiner transport staff found the toddler breathing in the morgue at 11:52 p.m., and he was flown to Phoenix Children's Hospital, later surviving and being released from care.
- Gilbert police have recommended felony child-abuse charges against the parents and submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for review, and Mercy Gilbert says it conducted a thorough internal review without disclosing personnel actions.
- Reports disagree on the extent of brain injury but note continuing medical needs for the child; the episode raises questions about clinical death pronouncement procedures, use of the term 'agonal breathing,' and hospital reporting and oversight.