Newborn Declared Dead By Doctors Is Found Breathing Moments Before Funeral

In a shocking incident in India, a newborn girl who was declared dead by the doctors of a private hospital was found alive and breathing right before her funeral. The incident took place Saturday in the southern state of Karnataka.

According to local media reports, a couple, Erappa and Amaramma, had a baby girl at the government hospital in Turuvihala on May 10. However, the child needed further treatment due to some health complications, and the doctors advised her parents to take the newborn to Sindhanuru Government Hospital.

The parents took their child to a private hospital instead and said that the government hospital they were referred to would lack proper infrastructure, ETV Bharat reported.

The child was admitted to the hospital and received treatment for three to four days. However, the doctors told the family members Saturday that the baby girl had passed away. After learning about the death, the parents took the child's body and began preparing for her funeral. But at the cemetery, one of the relatives noticed that the child was still breathing, The New Indian Express reported.

The family immediately rushed the infant to another private hospital, where doctors said the child was alive and would need to be kept under observation. Parents and relatives were outraged over the incident, calling out the doctor who declared the newborn dead as negligent.

It remains unclear if an official complaint will be filed against the doctors who declared the baby dead.

In a similar incident reported last year, a newborn was also wrongfully declared dead and was found alive during her own funeral. Pilaventhira Raja and Fathima Mary, residents of the state of Tamil Nadu, were told by doctors that their baby was stillborn. The hospital handed over the child's "body" to the family and they proceeded to prepare for her funeral. At the burial ground, however, some relatives noticed movements in the infant and she was immediately rushed back to the hospital, where she was kept on life support. The child, unfortunately, did not make it and died less than 24 hours later.