A to Z: N is for not quite dead

Part of the Blogging A to Z Challenge. I’m blogging every day in April, except Sundays, thematically from A to Z.  Find out more here.

It sounds like a horror story. First, your newborn baby is pronounced dead. Then when you ask to see the body of your child to say farewell, her coffin is opened – and she cries. This really happened this past week in Argentina. A newborn baby stayed alive inside a morgue refrigerator for  12 hours straight.

The baby was born premature after only being carried for 26 weeks during birth. The doctors had trouble finding the babies vital signs after she was born. She wasn’t dead, just mostly dead.

Hearing this horrific and miraculous story all I can think about is Billy Crystal as Miracle Max from Princess Bride. The man in black, thought to be dead, is brought to him by Inigo Montoya for a miracle.

Miracle Max: [Lifts and drops the arm of the dead Westley] I’ve seen worse.

Inigo Montoya: He’s dead. He can’t talk.

Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.

That one thing to do is open up the coffin! It’s a miracle this tiny baby wasn’t all dead. Only mostly dead.

A miracle indeed. A higher power intervened. What if the parents hadn’t asked to see their baby one more time? She would have died with no one knowing she was only mostly dead. A miracle. That a baby born premature and pronounced dead could survive 12 hours in a refrigerator. She’s a fighter for sure.

I hope she goes from mostly dead to wonderfully alive for a long, long time.