A 3-year-old girl woke up during her funeral before being officially declared dead after doctors mistakenly presumed her dead the first time.
A three-year-old girl surprised her parents when she awoke at her funeral viewing after doctors at a hospital in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potos told them she had died of dehydration.
Camila Martnez’s family is now accusing the staff at Salinas de Hidalgo Basic Community Hospital of negligence.
When Mary Jane Mendoza and her husband took their daughter to a pediatrician in the municipality of Villa de Ramos on August 17, the child complained of stomach pain, vomiting, and fever, according to Mexican newspaper El Universal.
Martnez was taken to the hospital on the doctor’s recommendation to be treated for dehydration. Mendoza stated that doctors at the facility used a cold towel to cool her down and a pulse oximeter on one of her fingers to measure her oxygen level.
Martnez was released after an hour and given medication. However, her condition worsened later in the day, and she was seen by a doctor at a clinic, who gave her a different prescription and advised her to eat non-sweet fruits and drink plenty of liquid.
Martnez continued to vomit everything she drank and ate while at home. She was then taken to another doctor, who advised her parents to take her to the emergency room right away.
Martnez was admitted to the Salinas de Hidalgo Basic Community Hospital for the second time between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. local time.
“They wanted to give her (intravenous therapy). They took a long time to put oxygen on her,” her mother said. “They didn’t put it on her because they couldn’t find her little veins; finally, a nurse managed it.”
The IV was removed after about 10 minutes. She picked up Martínez from the hospital bed and remembered how ‘she still was hugging me, they took her away and told me, ‘You have to let her rest in peace.’
Mendoza was locked in a room but managed to escape but was unable to enter the room where Martnez was being observed and died as a result.
On August 18, friends and family were standing over her tiny coffin when someone noticed the glass window fogged up.
Martinez’s maternal grandmother noticed that her eyes were moving and that she had a pulse, indicating that she was alive.
Camila was rushed by ambulance back to the Salinas hospital, where doctors unsuccessfully attempted to revive her and declared her dead again — this time from a cerebral edema (brain swelling).
“That was really where my baby was done. We are devastated because my girl was a very happy person, she got along with everyone, she didn’t single anyone out,” Mendoza said. “We have many people on the ranch who support us because she was cherished.”
The first death certificate obtained by her parents listed Camila’s cause of death as just dehydration, while the second noted dehydration, cerebral edema and metabolic failure.
“What I really want is for justice to be served. I have no grudge against the doctors [who] went to extreme [measures],” she said. “I only ask that the doctors, nurses and directors be changed so that it does not happen again.”
The incident is currently being investigated by the San Luis Potosí State Attorney General’s Office.
Updated: Camila case: Family asks for justice for the 3-year-old girl who ‘died twice’