An Arizona toddler declared dead after a Super Bowl party pool incident was found alive in the morgue five hours later, as his mother questions the hospital's care.
Eighteen-month-old Vincent Fiordilino was pulled from a pool face down during a Super Bowl gathering on February 8, rushed by paramedics performing CPR, and pronounced dead at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center in Gilbert, Arizona, just 16 minutes after arrival.
Five hours later, staff found him alive in the morgue. He was life-flighted to another valley hospital. His mother, Alexus Fiordilino, has now broken her silence, and the family's attorney is preparing a complaint against the doctor and hospital while police have referred the matter to the state attorney general.
The U.S. Sun reported the timeline from medical documents shared by the family's attorney and from the mother's first interview since that day with Fox affiliate WBRC.
Vincent arrived at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center around 6:04 p.m. Four minutes later a doctor ordered an arterial blood gas test, which measures oxygen in the blood. That test was canceled.
Staff collected labs at 6:11 p.m. Body-camera footage captured officers asking at 6:13 p.m., “Do we have results on the gas yet?” Medical staff said they did not.
At 6:20 p.m., the hospital declared Vincent dead. The lab results arrived 18 minutes after that pronouncement. The doctor did not sign his report until the day after the boy was found alive.
Gilbert Police Department was notified just before 11:30 p.m. that the toddler “showed signs of life and was life-flighted to another valley hospital for further treatment.”
Alexus Fiordilino described the hours after her son was pulled from the water.
She told interviewers:
"I remember just begging the police officers and the fire department to just save him."
She continued:
"I’m saying goodbye. And I’m begging him. I’m just begging Vincent to come back."
When word came that he was alive in the morgue, she said:
"I didn’t even think stuff like that happened. I thought I lost my baby, and he was back."
She added that she felt grateful and needed to reach him because “he was alone.” She still thinks about that day constantly.
The family's attorney told WBRC that Vincent now has health issues that will require lifelong care. The attorney plans to file a complaint against the doctor and the hospital, citing the canceled test and the speed of the death declaration.
Alexus Fiordilino directed sharp words at the physician involved:
"I think that man failed to do his job properly... He failed my son in every step of the way."
She said the family “trusted the professionals that took an oath” and claimed staff “looked at my son for whatever reason and decided he wasn’t worth it.”
Gilbert Police investigated and reached a different conclusion on criminal liability. A department spokesperson stated: “The facts gathered in the investigation, combined with all facts known at this time, did not establish probable cause for any criminal conduct involving medical personnel.”
No charges have been filed. Police referred the case to the Arizona Attorney General’s office and said they have no timeline for when that review will finish.
The documents raise concrete process questions. Why order an arterial blood gas test, cancel it, collect other labs, and still pronounce death before those results returned? Why did the signing of the doctor’s report wait until after the child was found alive?
Gilbert sits roughly 30 miles southeast of Phoenix. The Super Bowl party pool, the exact finder of the boy, the doctor’s name, the second hospital’s name, and Vincent’s specific long-term diagnoses were not detailed in the available accounts.
What is established is the clock: 16 minutes from arrival to declared death, a canceled oxygen test, lab results that landed after the pronouncement, five hours in the morgue before signs of life, a life-flight, lifelong care needs, a police finding of no probable cause, and a pending attorney general review plus a planned civil complaint.
Parents hand their children to emergency rooms expecting every reasonable step before a death call. When that process is shortened and a canceled test sits on the record, trust erodes and a child pays the price for the rest of his life.
