After spending hours grieving the death of her toddler, Alexus Fiordilino learned the unthinkable: Her son was alive.
On Feb. 8, Vincent Fiordilino was rushed to a hospital after he was found floating face down in the Gilbert family's pool.
Within 18 minutes of his arrival, he was pronounced dead, but more than four hours later, he was found breathing in the hospital cold room by a medical examiner’s transporter.
Vincent’s mother, Alexus, is speaking out and giving her account of that day for the first time.
Fiordilino, along with her attorney John Brewer, is considering legal action against Dr. Aryan Toosi, the physician who treated Vincent, and Dignity Health, the operator of Mercy Gilbert Hospital, where the toddler was taken.
Toosi, through his
lawyer, Scott Holden, declined to comment, citing pending litigation and patient privacy laws.
“Dr. Toosi’s thoughts are with the young patient and family, and he wishes the child continued healing and recovery. His commitment to delivering high-quality care has always been rooted in a desire to provide healing, safety and comfort to his community,” Holden said in a written statement.
Alexus Fiordilino said she was seeking “accountability” and wanted the best for her son. She questioned Toosi’s actions that day.
“Infuriated. I feel like I was grossly misled,” she said.
Mom recalls moments before Vincent was declared dead
The Fiordilinos were having a Super Bowl party that day when suddenly Vincent was missing.
It was Alexus who found her son in the pool. She pulled him out, and her husband began CPR on Vincent, she said.
The boy threw up “a little bit of food or water,” she said. Family members began making 911 calls, and they picked him up and moved him to the front yard so it would be easier for the fire department to find them, she said.
Redacted police body camera footage obtained by The Arizona Republic showed Alexus wailing for help as officers ran toward the home.
“Please, oh God,” she was heard crying as they moved her inside the home while first responders worked on her son in the front yard.
An officer was heard saying the boy had been in the pool for 10 to 15 minutes. Brewer, the family’s attorney, declined to comment on how Vincent got into the pool and how long he was in there.
Vincent was transported to Dignity Health Mercy Gilbert Medical Center and arrived at 6:04 p.m., medical records showed.
Alexus and the other family members waited to hear updates on his condition in a room next door.
Dr. Toosi walked into the room to speak with the family, sat down “blasé and nonchalantly,” and asked if they wanted to continue resuscitation efforts, Alexus said.
Alexus also described a “weird” interaction between an officer and Dr. Toosi.
At one point, an officer, who had been assigned to go to the hospital, said he heard a nurse say, "I have a pulse.”
The officer told Dr. Toosi he felt it was “preemptive of him to come talk to us about this based on the fact they were still working on him in the other room and had possibly found a pulse,” Alexus recalled.
She said Dr. Toosi “got upset” and told the officer he “needed to let them do his thing because he went to school for this.” In the police report, other officers noted witnessing a similar statement made by Dr. Toosi.
In body camera footage, Alexus was heard sobbing as the resuscitation measures continued.
Alexus was “begging,” thinking, "please just bring him back," while the family prayed, she said. Not five minutes later, Dr. Toosi walked back into the room, telling them Vincent’s PH levels were too high, she said. She was told it meant the “acidic levels in his blood were too high for sustainable life.”
Brewer claimed Dr. Toosi lied to Vincent’s parents about the PH levels because he didn’t have the results of a blood test that would provide those results until 18 minutes after he called the time of death.
Upon hearing that, Alexus and her husband decided to stop resuscitation efforts.
“And they make that decision based upon a lie,” Brewer said.
Toosi called time of death at 6:20 p.m., according to records.
When the family went inside the hospital room to say goodbyes and to hug Vincent’s body, they told medical staff it felt like he was breathing and letting out air.
Medical staff repeatedly told them it was agonal breathing, an involuntary breath. Alexus remembers the family brought it up multiple times and the answer was always the same.
When she touched him, she felt his cold body, which made her believe he was really gone.
The family then left the hospital, leaving Vincent alone, waiting to be transferred by a medical examiner transporter.
Parents were at the police station while Vincent lay in a hospital cold room
A police investigation began, and Alexus and her husband were taken to a station.
Police took their photos and fingerprints. They were interviewed by police.
More than four hours later, a detective walked in and told her he had “good news” for them, Alexus recalled.
She said her first thought was hope that her son was alive and that it was all a mistake, which turned out to be true.
While the Fiordilinos were at the police station, Vincent was taken down to the hospital’s cold room where bodies were held to be transported.
Brewer said when officers came to photograph his body, an officer again raised the question about the boy breathing but was told by medical staff it was just a reflex and not a true breath.
Vincent lay on a table with a thick sheet placed over him until a medical examiner's office transporter reported the child was breathing.
Brewer said the medical transporter has given his “sworn account of what he found.” He said the man had to convince two security guards that Vincent was alive and to take him back up to be treated.
Nurses took Vincent's core temperature, something Dr. Toosi did not do, and began warming measures, Brewer said.
Vincent was later airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Vincent is a 'different baby'
Nearly nine months later, Vincent is home, but there are good days and rough days, Alexus said.
She said she was grateful that God saved her son but that his life would never be the same.
“He’s a pretty severe brain injury because of it,” Alexus said.
His mother described Vincent as a different baby.
Their lives are “completely destroyed by this in a way that’s really unexplainable” and unimaginable, she said.
In August, the family celebrated Vincent's second birthday, but it wasn’t “the birthday we thought it would be,” she said.
What’s next?
Reflecting on that day and reviewing the medical records, Alexus said she feels “infuriated beyond belief.”
“The more I’ve learned, the angrier I get because it’s like every step of the way, every time somebody told this person, all of it, just ignored,” she said.
Brewer said a lawsuit against Toosi and the hospital was expected to be filed in the coming week.
Abby Kay, a spokesperson for Dignity Health, said it was a “heartbreaking situation." However, she declined to comment, citing “patient care” and out of respect for the patient’s privacy.
No negligence charges were filed against the boy’s parents. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office said prosecutors reviewed the case and determined it did not meet the standard required to pursue criminal charges.
Gilbert police have asked the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to review the case.
Sgt. Jordan Truckenbrod, with Gilbert police, in a written statement said their investigation “did not establish probable cause for any criminal conduct involving medical personnel.”
Richie Taylor, with the Attorney General’s Office, confirmed it had received the referral.
“However, no decision has been made by our office on whether we will accept that referral at this time,” Taylor said in a statement.
Brewer said he hoped the case would be reviewed by the Attorney General’s Office.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona mom feels 'grossly misled' after son wrongly declared dead
