Luz Milagros, the 'miracle' baby found alive after being declared dead and who spent 12 hours in a morgue refrigerator last year, has passed away on Sunday.
She remained hospitalized in critical condition since yesterday after suffering from cardiac arrest. The news was confirmed via Facebook by her aunt, Daniela Charamonti.
The 14-month-old infant went into cardiac arrest yesterday, for which she remained hospitalized in a Rosario childrens' hospital, in the province of Santa Fe. After being reanimated, doctors said she was in critical condition. She died minutes after 1 p.m. on Sunday.
She struggled with several developmental problems such as microcephaly. Until yesterday, her family was raising money to take her to China, where they would treat her with stem cells in hopes she could recover some of her basic motor functions.
Luz Milagros Veron's story shocked the world last year when she was pronounced dead after premature birth and was found alive after staying more than 10 hours in a morgue refrigerator.
Doctors at the Perrando Hospital in Chaco, Northeast Argentina, couldn't explain it, and every doctor, nurse and morgue workers who dealt with the baby were suspended as an investigation got underway, officials said.
Analia Boutet, the baby's mother, had given birth four times previously. Luz Milagros, born on April 3, three months earlier than expected, had no vital signs, according to hospital director Dr. José Luis Meiriño. Back then, he said he couldn't find any signs of life in the baby, so he passed her to a neonatal doctor who also didn't find vital signs. "We followed the protocol", Meiriño said.
Two morgue workers then put Luz Milagros' body inside a little wooden coffin and placed it in the freezer. "Up to that point, there were still no vital signs", the hospital director said.
That night, Boutet began insisting on seeing her dead daughter's body. She wanted to take a picture with her cell phone of the baby just as she lay, as a memory, her husband said.
When the hospital officials finally allowed the couple to visit the baby in the hospital morgue around 10 pm, after 12 hours since the baby had been declared dead, they approached Luz Milagros' body, touched her hand and heard a cry, Fabian Verón, the baby's father, told CNN.
Boutet jumped back. "It's my imagination, it's my imagination", she repeated. But the baby was alive and crying.
"I can't explain what happened. Only that God has performed a miracle", Verón said. Some doctors at the time said it was possible that the low temperatures inside the refrigerator had slowed down the baby's metabolism and helped her survive.
The baby was going to be named Lucía, but after finding her alive, her parents said she would be Luz Milagros - the Spanish words for light and miracles.
Luz Milagros is survived by her parents and four siblings.
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