NEW DELHI, Aug 25: The mother of a three year old girl who woke up at her funeral only to die hours late, has filed a case of negligence against the doctors who had declared her dead when apparently she was still alive.
The unusual incident that happened in Villa de Ramos town in Mexico on August 17 is also being investigated by the San Luis Potosi State Attorney General.
According to the reports in the local media on Thursday, the family of the three-year old girl Camila Roxana Martinez Mendoza took the toddler to the hospital after she experienced stomach pains, vomiting and fever. The local paediatrician told the girl’s mother Mary Jane Mendoza to take her to a bigger hospital and gave her a prescription for paracetamol while discharging her.
As Camila’s condition continued to deteriorate, she took her to another doctor. He prescribed a different medication and asked the mother to give the toddler fruits and water. However, there was no improvement in her condition after which the family rushed the girl to the emergency room of a hospital.
The media quoted the mother as saying that the hospital staff took a long time to put oxygen on her. After 10 minutes of putting her on intravenous fluids, the doctors removed it and asked Ms Mendoza to “let her rest in peace.” The doctors declared dehydration as the official reason for the girl’s death.
Next day, when the funeral was being held, Ms Mendoza noticed that a glass panel in her daughter’s coffin had mysteriously clouded over. The mourners initially dismissed her words, saying she was not able to bear the loss of her child and is “hallucinating.” But the little girl’s grandmother spotted Camila’s eyes moving, she was taken out of the coffin and it was discovered that she had a pulse.
Camila was again rushed to the hospital in an ambulance where the doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive her and declared her dead again – this time from a cerebral edema (brain swelling). Ms Mendoza has now filed a case of negligence against the first doctors who had mistakenly declared her dead when she was actually alive.
(Manas Dasgupta)
