Alexus Fiordilino has broken her silence about the day doctors pronounced her toddler dead only for him to be found alive hours later in a hospital morgue.
The Gilbert, Arizona mother, whose 18-month-old son Vincent was discovered face down in the family pool last February, sat down with ABC 15 on Monday to describe what she called the worst day of her life. Fiordilino recalled arriving at the emergency room and being told by Dr. Aryan Toosi that her son’s pH levels were too acidic for recovery. “He comes back, like maybe not even five, 10 minutes later and he’s like ‘yeah so it’s pH levels are too high,” she said in the interview. “They’re too acidic. So even if we are to bring him back, it wouldn’t be a good form of life.”
The doctor reportedly told her that her son would be suffering and that it was best to call time of death. “‘He’d be suffering. So I think it’s best that I call the time for it,'” Fiordilino recalled him saying. She remembered touching her son during the ordeal and finding him frigid. “I remember feeling him and being like, ‘he’s so cold.'”
Fiordilino said Vincent was actually breathing in the hospital room before the erroneous pronouncement, but staff dismissed it as agonal breathing. Her mother-in-law noticed the signs of life first. “‘She’s like, ‘Hey, it sounds like he’s breathing.’ And I’m like, ‘What?”‘ Fiordilino told ABC 15. Hospital staff assured her that “it’s normal that it’s going to sound like that” and attributed the breathing to the child’s deoxygenated brain stem.
A police report revealed that an officer at the scene heard a nurse declare “I have a pulse” and watched other staff rush to help revive the boy. When the officer relayed this to Fiordilino, Dr. Toosi allegedly brushed him off, stating “he was the doctor, he has a medical degree, he went to medical school for a reason and let him do his thing.” Six minutes after that exchange, Vincent was declared dead.
The officer’s observations did not end there. She noted in her report that Vincent’s “stomach and chest area was rising and falling” and that she “observed what appeared to be another audible gasp.” Nearly an hour later, she witnessed still more movement. “I again observed what appeared to be a gasp or air release, which was now almost an hour later,” she wrote.
Five hours after he was first found in the pool, Vincent was officially pronounced dead. The pronouncement held until a medical examiner’s transport arrived at the hospital and discovered the toddler was still alive in the morgue. “He ended up in the morgue,” Fiordilino told ABC 15. The revelation triggered an emergency airlift to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where doctors determined the child had suffered severe brain damage that would leave him cognitively impaired for life.
“He was alone for five-and-a-half hours. How do you do that to a baby?” Fiordilino asked. She described the anguish of being forced to say farewell to her son prematurely. “I had to say goodbye,” she said. “Do you know how hard that is?”
The incident has drawn scrutiny from both law enforcement and the family’s legal team. Gilbert Police Sgt. Jordan Tuckenbrod said that investigators found no probable cause for criminal conduct by medical personnel. “As a result, no charges were forwarded against those involved,” he said. The case has since been referred to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for review, though Tuckenbrod noted, “We do not have an estimated timeline for when their review would be completed.”
Dignity Health, which operates the hospital where Vincent was initially treated, declined to address specifics. A representative said that “out of respect for the patient’s privacy, we cannot share any information and we are unable to comment on those involved in patient care,” adding that “Patient Safety and exceptional care are our highest priorities.”
Dr. Toosi’s attorney offered a similarly limited response to the outlet, stating that “his commitment to delivering high-quality care has always been rooted in a desire to provide healing, safety and comfort to his community.” The lawyer cited pending litigation and privacy laws in declining to discuss the care provided.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is now reviewing the case.