Presumed Dead Infant Found Alive In Coffin

State hospital doctors in Asuncion, Paraguay informed Jose Alvarenga that despite their best efforts, his new premature baby had not survived. Imagine the shock of the relatives attending his funeral when they heard an infant’s cry from inside the baby’s temporary coffin a few hours later.

“I opened [the coffin] to look at his remains and found that the baby was breathing,” the distraught father recalled, “I began to cry.”

Authorities are now launching an investigation into whether the hospital should be held accountable for the infant being nearly buried alive.

Doctors had originally informed Alvarenga that his new infant was a girl, the Associated Press is reporting.

“This is a very unusual case,” offered Ernesto Weber, head of the intensive care unit for the pediatric division.

Dr. Weber did recognize the doctor attending the infant did not extend the proper medical attention needed to detect the infant’s vital signs, but another doctor from the hospital’s birthing center, Dr. Aida Notario, told authorities the baby’s pulse rate was so low, it was impossible to detect.

Alvarenga rushed his newborn son back to the hospital immediately after the discovery, where the hospital staff placed him in an oxygen chamber.

The yet unnamed infant is currently in stable condition.

Baby Alvarenga, according to the hospital records, weighs only 500g or 17.6oz.

UPDATE: Baby Alvarenga has died since this news report hit. The family is looking into whether the hospital staff was negligent.  His parents named him “Angel”.