A newborn was declared Wednesday as dead by her attending physician at the Gallares Memorial Hospital only to breath life after hours of long road travel all the way from this city to Carmen town, stirring a hornet’s nest in the local medical community. Actually, the newborns were twins, where one of them was christened as Maryjoy. It was this tot who baffled the medical community after she was declared as dead only to tweak as in a “cry baby” while being bundled with a piece of cloth as wont a dead person. Being dead, she was placed in a shoe box to escape noticed from unwitting passengers of a bus bound for Carmen. It was understandable for parents to place the dead in a shoe box because normally passenger buses prohibit the transport of a dead person except in duly designated carriers like funeral cars.

Declared dead in the afternoon of Nov. 23 by a doctor who was not identified in the report, the baby rose from her sleep more than five hours after she was delivered along with her twin sister. However, efforts to revive the “second life” of the newborn proved futile as she finally succumbed to respiratory distress syndrome and severe sepsis neonatorum, according to attending physicians. There were frantic efforts to revive the baby after the dead declaration generated a heated controversy resulting in calls of the attending doctor to answer for criminal negligence. But according to Dr. Edgar Pizarras, spokesman of the hospital, the baby who was born premature was only 4.35 grams in weight and cases of this nature are practically candidates for death. The hospital spokesman said he has talked to the attending physician and the decision to declare the baby dead was based on his observation that her heart had already stopped beating.

But the sister twin who weighed about nine pounds was normally delivered prompting the doctor to focus his attention on the “normal baby”. But his efforts for the baby to live was all in vain when she died just the same after delivery. In the same interview, Dr. Pizarras was also at a loss why the baby breathed life after being declared dead. He did not discount the possibility of a miracle befalling the baby. Maryjoy was reportedly baptized by a priest the following day she was declared alive at the same hospital where she was brought for her second coming. Both babies were born in medical parlance as “abortous” or “extremely premature” upon delivery. After being declared dead, Maryjoy was reportedly wrapped in a white cloth in a manner like a “mummy” and put inside a cartoon box and given to her father. In turn, the father let her grandmother brought her to their hometown of Carmen, about 50 kms. from this city.

The “dead body” was brought there for the burial. But five hours later, Pizarras said, the grandma was wondering as she heard a crying voice of Maryjoy, only to find out that she’s still breathing. She was rushed to the hospital again for further treatment. Pizarras said that it was not the doctor who assisted the delivery of the twins that declared her dead but another doctor who is a pedia practitioner. But their identities were kept under wraps although their names were already aired on several radio programs. Meanwhile, Pizarras bared the initial findings of the investigation the hospital has conducted immediately after the incident during the weekly press conference of Gov. Edgar Chatto held Friday at the Governor’s Mansion. The governor formed a fact-finding panel to look into the incident if indeed lapses were committed by doctors in declaring the baby prematurely dead. (With reports from RIC Obedencio)