A shocking case of medical error has emerged from the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Arizona, where an 18-month-old toddler was incorrectly pronounced dead following a near-drowning incident, only to be discovered alive hours later in a medical examiner’s cold storage facility, newly unsealed police records confirm.
The incident unfolded on February 8, as the toddler’s extended family had gathered at the home to watch the annual NFL Super Bowl. At roughly 5:30 p.m. local time, panicked family members discovered the young child floating face-down in the property’s unmonitored swimming pool and immediately placed an emergency call to law enforcement. First responders arrived on scene within minutes, initiated advanced resuscitation efforts, and rushed the unconscious toddler to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center for urgent care. Roughly an hour after the child arrived at the hospital, attending physician Dr. Aryan Toosi declared the 18-month-old dead at 6:20 p.m.
Body camera footage captured by responding Gilbert police officers, later obtained by local NBC affiliate 12 News, records the declaration of death: after officers noted that they still observed faint signs of life, Dr. Toosi dismissed their concerns, telling officers “please do your thing and let me do my thing. I went to medical school for a reason.” He then formally marked the time of death as 18:20 and called for a moment of silence before the child’s body was transferred to the hospital’s morgue to await pickup by the county medical examiner’s office.
Five hours after the death was declared, a transporter from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office arrived at the hospital to collect the remains. When the transporter opened the cold storage unit holding the toddler, he made the startling discovery that the child was still breathing. The toddler was immediately airlifted to a specialized pediatric care facility for emergency treatment, and in a stunning turn of events, made a full recovery and was later released to family members.
Full medical details of the toddler’s condition and the misdiagnosis have not been released to the public, as medical records were not included in the unsealed police report, leaving many questions unanswered about the sequence of events that led to the incorrect death declaration. Scott Holden, attorney for Dr. Toosi, told the Associated Press that the public narrative released so far omits critical contextual and medical details, noting “there is much more to this case, both factually and medically, than has been reported thus far.” The BBC has reached out to Holden for additional comment on the case, but has not yet received a response.
Alongside the internal hospital review, law enforcement has opened a separate investigation into the circumstances that allowed the toddler to access the pool unsupervised. Investigators reported detecting a strong odor of marijuana inside the home at the time of the incident, and Gilbert Police have formally recommended filing negligence charges against the toddler’s parents. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has not yet announced whether it will move forward with formal charges, and is still reviewing the case file.
Mercy Gilbert Medical Center released a public statement following the revelation of the incident, confirming that the facility has launched a full organizational review of the toddler’s care. “We conducted a thorough review of all aspects of the care provided to learn what happened and to make meaningful changes to strengthen our care,” the statement read, adding that “this is a heartbreaking situation” and declining to share further details due to patient privacy regulations.