‘He was alone for five and a half hours’: Arizona mother speaks out nearly 8 months after her 18-month-old son was found alive in a morgue

Alexus Fiordilino, the mother of an 18-month-old found alive in an Arizona hospital morgue in February, speaks out for the first time. On February 8, the toddler, Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino, was found in his family’s pool and then brought to a health facility in Gilbert, Arizona. A physician pronounced him dead at 6:20 p.m, within a few minutes after arriving at the facility.

More than five hours later, personnel from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, who had come to collect his body, found him breathing in the morgue. “About five hours later, police were notified that the child was indeed breathing, and he was flown to another hospital,” the Associated Press said in a report.

Vincent’s mom, Alexus, now says that she still thinks about the horrific day when she almost lost her son. “I didn’t even think stuff like that happened. I thought I lost my baby and he was back,” the mom said in an interview with azfamily. “There isn’t a day I don’t think about that day.”


Azfamily reports citing the shared documents by the family’s attorney that showed Vincent reached Mercy Gilbert Medical Center around 6:04 p.m. local time on Feb. 8 after the near-drowning incident, according to Arizona’s Family.

​Alexus told KNXV that the emergency room, referring to Dr. Aryan Toosi, who pronounced Vincent dead, told her that Vincent’s pH levels were “too high” to sustain life and live a healthy life. “So even if we are to bring him back, it wouldn't be a good form of life. He'd just be suffering. So, I think it's best that I call the time for it,” she adds.

​The station reviewed records that showed Toosi allegedly used blood gas test results to justify not taking Vincent’s “core body temperature or performing warming measures due.”

​After the doctor pronounced Vincent's time of death 6.20 pm, Alexus said goodbye to her son, but claimed that when her mother-in-law tried to hug him, she thought the child was breathing. However, their excitement was short-lived, as the medical staff there said it was ‘normal.’

​When she finally learned her son had survived, Alexus told AZ Family she felt “really grateful.” But the mother also shared her agony for the baby during those moments, telling KNXV, “He was alone for five and a half hours. How do you do that to a baby?”

On July 29, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office revealed that police had recommended charges against both of Vincent’s parents, but prosecutors “determined that this case did not meet our charging standard of ‘reasonable likelihood of conviction.”