Chinese newborn boy pronounced dead wakes up crying moments before he was due to be cremated

The baby boy was found wailing after spending 15 hours in a morgue at -12C temperature

Baby An An in an incubator at Pan'an People's Hospital
Baby An An in an incubator at Pan'an People's Hospital Credit: Photo: CEN

A newborn baby boy who was pronounced dead in China woke up crying moments before he was due to be cremated after spending the night in a morgue at -12C temperature.

A worker at the Pan'an funeral home in Jinhua realised the baby, named An An, was still alive when he pulled the newborn out of the refrigerator and he began to wail, reported Channel Six of Zhejiang Television. The worker then contacted the father and cancelled the scheduled cremation.

The boy had been delivered prematurely, after a seven-month pregnancy, on January 8 at the Pan'an People's Hospital in Zhejiang, a coastal province in southeastern China.

According to Channel Six, the father of the baby boy, named only as Lu, insisted on taking him out of incubation a week earlier than doctors had recommended to bring him home for Chinese New Year.

Two days later, the boy’s face lost colour and the family rushed him back to hospital for emergency care. By February 4, the baby's state had deteriorated. The paediatrician, Dr Chen Shuanghua, declared that the baby was not breathing and there was no heartbeat.

According to the Mail Online after the hospital issued a death certificate, An An's father wrapped him in two layers of clothing and took him to the morgue of the Pan'an Funeral Home at around 6pm.

Baby An An's death certificate

An An, who had spent 15 hours in a freezer with temperatures of -12C, was then sent back to the emergency room, where he was being kept under observation in an incubator on Monday.

"Having been a paediatrician for over 20 years, I can’t really understand how this miracle happened"
Dr Chen Shuanghua

“Having been a paediatrician for over 20 years, I can’t really understand how this miracle happened,” Dr Chen said according to the Epoch Times.

Unfortunately, the odds of his survival are low, Dr Chen said.

Mr Yang, director of the People's Hospital, said that the staff made a mistake by not confirming the baby's death a second time before issuing the death certificate.