Toddler Found Alive in Morgue After Being Pronounced Dead
Left 75%
Center 25%
Right 0%
3 left · 1 center · 0 right
What happened
On Feb. 8, 18-month-old Vincent Fiordilino was found unresponsive in a family swimming pool in Gilbert, Arizona, during a Super Bowl gathering and was taken to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, where Dr. Aryan Toosi pronounced him dead at 6:20 p.m. Police reports describe audible gasps after that declaration, which a nurse attributed to agonal breathing; around 7:23 p.m. the child was placed in the hospital cold room used as a morgue. Shortly before midnight, a medical examiner’s employee arriving to collect the body found Vincent breathing, more than five hours after he had been declared dead, and he was airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. In July, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell declined to charge the parents, Alexus and Angelo Fiordilino, after police recommended child-abuse counts related to supervision. The boy is home with severe brain injury, according to the family.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 4 articles
2 of 3 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 2 of 3
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Alexus Fiordilino, John Brewer, Gilbert Police Department, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and Mom of Vincent Fiordilino
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 3
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: police report, medical records, press statement
- Credits another outlet 0 of 3
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 3
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Oct 21, 22:02 UTC by NBC News, naming its source. First document in the first report, from NBC News (police report).
- Not counted 1
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
BLINDSPOT.
Only left-leaning outlets are covering this story
— the other side's media is silent.
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Right-leaning coverage has not reported this story. Left-leaning coverage reports that an Arizona toddler pronounced dead after a pool accident was found alive in a hospital morgue more than five hours later, and that the family's lawyer says the doctor stopped treatment using tests that were still pending. NBC News also reports that police recommended child abuse charges, which the county attorney later declined. A reader of the silent side would not learn of the morgue finding or of that charging decision.
Left-leaning coverage leads with the mother's "unexplainable feeling," and places the police recommendation and a marijuana admission further down in the same articles rather than in the opening.
Why were further gasps after the declared time of death not treated as a reason to resume care?
Bottom line
NBC News says a doctor at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center declared a toddler dead using tests that had not come back. Right-leaning coverage has not reported that the child was later found alive in the morgue.
The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
- A toddler pronounced dead at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center was found breathing in the hospital morgue.
- Detectives reported audible gasps after death was declared, which a nurse attributed to agonal breathing.
- The hospital cold room used as a morgue was set at 36 to 39 degrees.
- The medical examiner's team found the boy breathing at 11:52 p.m.
- The state attorney general's office said it has not made a decision to review the case.
The Left View
NBC News (including Phoenix affiliate KPNX) and The Hill have reported the mother’s first extensive interview more than eight months later and the family’s plan to complain against the doctor and hospital. Those outlets foreground Alexus Fiordilino’s account that she thought she heard her son breathing when she said goodbye but accepted the doctor’s statement that further efforts would only prolong suffering; the police timeline of post-pronouncement gasps; attorney John Brewer’s claim that test results cited to stop treatment were not completed until after death was called; and Vincent’s ongoing disabilities. They also report the parents’ admission of marijuana use the morning of the drowning, the decision not to charge them, and brief statements from the doctor’s lawyer and the hospital declining to discuss patient care.
Our Take (balanced)
The story is substantive: it involves named people, a dated police report with clock times, contemporaneous officer observations, and an official charging decision—not one party’s uncorroborated word. Established: the near-drowning, the death pronouncement, placement in the morgue, discovery alive hours later, transfer to another hospital, the no-charge decision, and the child’s reported severe neurological injury. Alleged and not adjudicated: that Dr. Toosi provided false information about unfinished tests or showed conscious disregard for life, and the medical meaning of the gasps staff called agonal breathing. No right-leaning outlet has reported this. Watch for the formal complaint, any Arizona attorney general review, and whether hospital records independently confirm the test-timing claim.
4 sources
- Arizona mom whose son was found alive in hospital morgue speaks out
- Arizona mother speaks out after her toddler was found alive in a morgue
- Family of toddler found alive in hospital morgue to file lawsuit: ‘I just want justice for my son’
- Mom of toddler found alive in hospital morgue: ‘We came to them for help’
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