HealthPop
By

Ryan Jaslow /

CBS News/ August 10, 2012, 9:52 AM

Argentine "miracle" baby rescued from morgue remains in serious condition at 4 months old

Analia Bouter, mother of baby declared dead then found alive

Analia Bouter and her husband Fabian Veron pose for a photo outside the hospital in Resistencia, Argentina, April 11, 2012. Bouter found her baby alive in a coffin in the morgue nearly 12 hours after the girl had been declared dead.

/ AP

(CBS/AP) The Argentine baby who was who survived 12 hours in a hospital morgue after her April birth is now four months old and closer to coming home.

Argentine "Miracle" baby recovering after 12 hours in morgue

Luz Milagros Veron - whose name translates to "Miracle Light" in English - was flown with her mother Analia Bouter on Thursday to a pediatric hospital closer to her home in provincial Chaco after months in intensive care in Buenos Aires.

The baby showed no signs of life when she was born three months premature in April, according to doctors, and she was quickly sent to the morgue. She's alive today because her parents insisted on seeing her body to say goodbye. After 12 hours inside a sealed coffin, she moved and let out a tiny cry. She was cold as ice, but far from dead.

Since then, Luz Milagros has grown and become stronger, but she isn't ready to go home yet.

Hugo Ramos, the deputy director of the hospital in provincial Resistencia where she will now be cared for, said she suffered neurological damage, still has internal bleeding and remains on a respirator. She's in stable but very serious condition, Ramos said, according to Argentina's Diarios y Noticias news agency.

Bouter acknowledged the challenges but expressed hope her daughter would improve enough to take her home. "In the future we'll see how to prepare the house to receive her," she said.

Last April, Boutin insisted on going to the morgue's refrigeration room, where she brought her sister's cell phone to snap a picture of the newborn for the funeral. Her husband had trouble opening the lid, and then stepped aside to let his wife see inside.

"I moved the coverings aside and saw the tiny hand, with all five fingers, and I touched her hand and then uncovered her face," Boutin said at the time in TeleNoticias interview. "That's where I heard a tiny little cry. I told myself I was imagining it - it was my imagination. And then I stepped back and saw her waking up. It was as if she was saying 'Mama, you came for me!''

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
6 Comments Add a Comment
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formerlyluvnut says:
Yet ANOTHER story I would expect out of N Carolina.
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rematenaj says:
It's amazing this little girl lives; God Bless her! I hope someday she is well enough to hear the story of her own miracle!
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AnnieDanny says:
This story just melts your heart doesn't it. She responded to her mother, even though she was at death's door. May God continue to bless this little Miracle and heal her. What a lovely name.
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jwilsonte5 says:
Nice to see a positive story ...
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dianle777 says:
"How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with You." Psalm 139:17,18
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dianle777 says:
What an amazing story of how precious each unborn child is to God who formed him/her, truly we are fearfully and wonderfully made!

"For You formed my inward parts, You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them." Psalm 139:13-16
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