'Stillborn' baby comes alive at funeral

13Friday · Post time 21-5-2007 11:29 PM

Is this a first case in the world? 13Fri

'Stillborn' baby comes alive at funeral
May 21, 07 12:48pm Adjust font size:

A baby girl declared stillborn by a hospital shocked her grieving parents when she started moving as they prepared to bury her.

The father, Azmi Masiron, said he and other mourners in a village in northern Kedah noticed a tiny movement from the baby as she lay on a funeral shroud, shortly after being declared dead on Sunday.

"When my father-in-law placed the baby on the burial shroud, she suddenly moved, shocking about 200 villagers who had gathered for the funeral," Azmi was quoted saying by the New Straits Times.

The 26-year-old father said he had been informed by the doctor of his daughter's death minutes after his wife, Nordewiyana Din, 28, delivered the baby prematurely.

The baby, who was wrapped in a cloth, had not moved during the five-kilometre ride from the hospital to his village for the funeral, Azmi said.

"I am really upset ... I hope this does not happen to another parent," Azmi said, adding he would take his complaint about the hospital to police.

Rushed back to hospital

The baby, who only weighed 330 grams (11.6 ounces), was rushed back to hospital and placed in an incubator but survived for only about eight hours before she died, state Bernama news agency reported late Monday.

The baby died at the same hospital she was born, in a district in northern Kedah state at 8.40pm on Sunday night and was buried this morning.

Kedah state health director, Hasnah Ismail said initial investigations revealed that the baby had been declared dead earlier on Sunday after no signs of breathing or a heartbeat were recorded.

A doctor had waited for almost an hour before declaring the 20-week old premature infant as dead, Bernama reported.

- AFP