This is an unbelievably frightening story. In an Asuncion, Paraguay hospital, a 16 week old premature baby was born without a discernible heartbeat, weighed 1.10 pounds, and “practically didn’t have any respiratory reflexes”, according to Dr. Ernesto Weber, the head of pediatric care. The infant was officially declared dead, and was put into a cardboard box with his name on the side. The makeshift coffin was taken away by the family and prepared for a funeral.
However, the baby suddenly began crying out once the coffin’s lid was opened a short while later, and was brought back to the hospital to be put into an incubator, where he is currently in stable condition.
Okay, deep breaths, everyone. First of all, I believe it’s important to distinguish between “practically didn’t have any” and “definitely didn’t have any”. You’d like to feel that you can rely upon the professional opinion of your doctor at times like this.
Second of all, isn’t there some other way to handle a recently deceased infant than by putting it into a cardboard box shaped like a coffin with the name printed on the side? Is the standard of life in Paraguay so poor that that’s all that can be afforded? Or was this requested by the family, as a way to provide some closure for themselves? We may never know, but this is hardly the first such story in the world of false death. Maybe it’s time to redefine the concepts of “life” and “death” to be broad enough to avoid situations like this in the future.
