An 18-month-old boy declared dead in a Gilbert, Arizona, emergency room after a near-drowning on Super Bowl Sunday was discovered alive and breathing nearly six hours later, in the hospital's cold room, where his body had been stored at temperatures between 36 and 39 degrees.
Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino is alive today. He should not be, by every official determination made at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center on the evening of February 8. But the police report tells a story of warning signs dismissed, professional arrogance on display, and a child left alone in a morgue while adults around him explained away evidence that he was still living.
The Gilbert Police Department has recommended child abuse charges against Vincent's parents. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is investigating both the near-drowning and what happened inside the hospital. And the ER physician who called time of death, Dr. Aryan Toosi, has referred all questions to a lawyer, while Mercy Gilbert Medical Center refuses to say whether Toosi still works there.
The 911 call came in at approximately 5:38 p.m. on February 8. Vincent had been found floating face down in the family pool. A relative pulled him out and performed CPR before paramedics arrived, NBC News reported.
The boy was rushed to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. The ER team, including Dr. Toosi, attempted resuscitation.
At 6:13 p.m., the police report noted a specific detail: Toosi was seen checking the time on "a cell phone with a cheetah print orange and black case" before going to deliver news to the boy's parents. Minutes later, he addressed the room.
"As long as there are no objections, I'd like to call time of death."
At approximately 6:20 p.m., 18:20 hours, Toosi declared Vincent dead and requested a moment of silence. The boy had been in the ER for roughly 40 minutes.
What happened next should trouble anyone who has ever trusted an emergency room with a loved one's life. The police report documents a series of observations that, in hindsight, pointed to a child who was not dead.
The boy's parents told investigators their child still appeared to be gasping for breath after the death declaration. A nurse explained it away as "agonal breathing", caused, the nurse said, by "compressions, oxygen, and possible pressure applied by family members while saying goodbye."
That explanation did not satisfy everyone in the room. At approximately 7:18 p.m., as ER workers prepared to move Vincent from the trauma room to the cold room, a detective on scene reported hearing "another audible gasp." The word "another" suggests it was not the first.
Five minutes later, at 7:23 p.m., the cold room door was closed. Vincent was alone.
The detective returned roughly an hour later to photograph the body. He "again observed what appeared to be a gasp or air release." The police report does not indicate that anyone reopened the question of whether the child was alive.
Water-related emergencies involving children remain one of the most harrowing scenarios first responders face. In one recent case, an ICE officer pulled an unconscious six-year-old from a Florida pool and administered CPR, saving the child's life. In Gilbert, the question is whether the adults inside the hospital did enough after the initial rescue.
The police report captures a moment that speaks to the atmosphere in that ER. A Gilbert police officer appeared to question Dr. Toosi's diagnosis at some point during the sequence of events. Toosi's response, recorded in the report:
"Please do your thing and let me do my thing. I went to medical school for a reason."
The report does not specify exactly what the officer questioned or when the exchange occurred. But the words carry a particular weight given what happened at 11:52 p.m.
That was when the medical examiner's team arrived at the hospital to retrieve Vincent's body. They found him breathing.
The family was notified immediately. Vincent was airlifted to Phoenix Children's Hospital.
Consider the timeline. From roughly 6:20 p.m. to 11:52 p.m., an 18-month-old boy lay in a hospital morgue set between 36 and 39 degrees. During that span, at least two separate observations of gasping or breathing were noted in the police report. Neither prompted anyone to reexamine whether the child was alive.
The boy survived. The Gilbert Police Department confirmed in a statement that "the child ultimately survived and has been released from the hospital." A crowdfunding page set up by the family stated Vincent was breathing with ventilator assistance, had avoided serious brain damage, but requires ongoing medical monitoring and extensive therapy.
Drowning and near-drowning incidents carry devastating consequences for families. A Connecticut father drowned after pulling his son from a rip current at Cocoa Beach, a reminder that water emergencies can claim lives in seconds, and that outcomes often hinge on the speed and competence of the response.
The Gilbert Police Department recommended to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office that Vincent's parents be charged with child abuse. The parents' names have not been publicly released.
The police report stated that "both admitted to smoking marijuana the morning of the drowning." Investigators wrote that the parents may not have realized their son had wandered to the pool due to "the potential of both parents' state of mind being impaired by marijuana and/or other mind altering substances."
A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to comment on the case. No charging decision has been publicly announced.
Cases involving children placed in danger by adult negligence draw intense scrutiny. In England, a man was arrested on attempted murder charges after a toddler was critically hurt in a zoo crocodile enclosure, another case where a child's survival depended on circumstances no child should have faced.
Dr. Toosi referred NBC News to lawyer Scott Holden. Holden issued a statement that raised more questions than it answered:
"Because of this, as well as patient confidentiality, we are unable to make a full statement at this time other than to assure you that there is much more to this case, both factually and medically, than has been reported thus far."
Mercy Gilbert Medical Center confirmed it had conducted its own internal investigation into what it called "a heartbreaking situation." The hospital did not reveal the results of that investigation. It also declined to answer whether Dr. Toosi remains on staff.
A man who answered the phone at the house where Vincent lives told NBC News: "I can't comment on this right now, but thanks for calling."
Five months after the incident, the public knows remarkably little about who, if anyone, will be held accountable. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has not announced charges against the parents. The hospital has not disclosed the outcome of its internal review. And the physician who declared a living child dead, and reportedly bristled when a police officer questioned his judgment, is shielded behind a lawyer's carefully worded statement.
The police report raises hard questions that remain open. Were other members of the ER team questioned about the death declaration? What was the basis of the officer's apparent challenge to Toosi's diagnosis? Why did multiple observations of gasping not trigger a reassessment?
Hypothermia and cold-water submersion are known to produce conditions that mimic death, particularly in young children. Medical literature recognizes this. Emergency physicians are trained to account for it. Whether that training was applied here is precisely what the Maricopa County investigation should determine.
The death of a Bering Sea deckhand from drowning and hypothermia illustrated how cold temperatures complicate medical assessments in water-related emergencies. In Vincent's case, the cold room itself may have played a role in preserving his life, an irony that should not obscure the failure that put him there.
Two sets of adults failed Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino on February 8. His parents, by their own admission, smoked marijuana the morning their toddler wandered into a pool. And the medical professionals at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center declared him dead while he was still breathing, then stored him in a morgue for nearly six hours while a detective repeatedly noticed signs of life that the clinical staff waved away.
The parents may face charges. The physician has a lawyer. The hospital has completed a review it won't share. And the county attorney's office won't comment.
Vincent is alive because a medical examiner's team showed up to collect a body and found a child who was still fighting. That is not a system working. That is a miracle covering for a system that broke down at every level, and the people of Gilbert, Arizona, deserve to know whether anyone plans to fix it.
