A baby boy in China was found alive in the funeral home two days after doctors at the Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital in eastern China declared him dead.
The less than a month old baby was found crying at the funeral parlour by the undertakers, according to reports. The parents of the baby agreed to end his medical treatment as he was suffering from a critical illness, reported AFP.
The doctors at the Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital handed out the death certificate to the parents and sent the baby to undertakers in Hefei, the provincial capital. Later, at the time of cremation the workers found the baby crying and sent him to hospital without delay.
"Because the baby still had life signs, we continued to give him transfusion to maintain his life for humanitarian reasons," a member of the hospital staff told Xinhua state news agency. According to the news agency, the baby was born with "congenital respiratory system malformation."
Officials invalidated the license of the doctor who pronounced the baby dead. They stated that the doctor, identified only by his last name Cha, was plain negligent in his duties. Also, a nurse was laid off following the incident, reports the Associated Press.
This incident created an uproar among the people in China, some even demanded that the parents and the doctor, both should be punished. "Please sentence the parents to five years in jail for abandonment," a member of microblogging site Weibo posted. "Doctors with white coats are really irresponsible, simply treating patients' lives with utter disregard," wrote another user, according to the AFP.
