An 18-month-old boy was pulled from a backyard pool in Gilbert, Arizona, on February 8 and declared dead by a doctor. Five hours later, he was found breathing inside the hospital's morgue refrigeration area, according to a newly released police report BBC.

The child was found face down in the pool while his family watched the Super Bowl. Police arrived around 17:30 local time. He was taken to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, where Dr. Aryan Toosi pronounced him dead at 18:20.

Before and after the death pronouncement, two police officers said they saw signs the child might still be alive. The officers mentioned this to Dr. Toosi. Bodycam video captured Dr. Toosi telling them: "please do your thing and let me do my thing" BBC. The child was then moved to the hospital's cold room, where dead bodies are stored.

Hours later, someone from the county medical examiner's office came to pick up the body and found the child was still breathing. He was flown to another hospital, where he recovered and was sent home BBC.

Police are recommending charges against the parents for negligence. Investigators found evidence of marijuana at the home and said the toddler may have been left alone near the pool. The county prosecutor has not said whether it will file charges against the parents, the doctor, or hospital staff.

The doctor's lawyer said "there is much more to this case, both factually and medically, than has been reported thus far." The hospital said it reviewed what happened and called it "a heartbreaking situation," but did not share details BBC. Medical records were not included in the police report, so it is unclear exactly why the doctor pronounced the child dead or what condition the child was in when the medical examiner's office found him.

National news outlets reported on this case starting in July CBS News.

This case brings together three separate areas of medicine and hospital policy that normally do not appear in the same situation. Young children who are pulled from water are evaluated based on how long they were underwater, the water temperature, and how fast doctors start treatment. Small children have a natural reflex — similar to how a diving mammal holds its breath — that can help them survive longer than doctors might normally expect. That fact may be important in understanding why the officers' concerns were not taken seriously at the hospital.

There is also a simpler question: Did the officers' observations get dismissed by the doctor, or did the hospital fail to properly pass along what the officers said? Hospitals typically separate two different kinds of problems: getting the medical judgment wrong versus failing to handle information properly. What the hospital found in its own review is not public, and that may determine which type of problem happened here.

Prosecutors must now decide who to charge. They could charge the parents for not watching the child and keeping him away from the pool. They could charge the doctor for declaring him dead when he was still alive. Or they could charge the hospital for not following proper procedures. The marijuana reference in the police report suggests authorities want to focus on parental supervision. Whether that is enough to charge the parents separately from the hospital's mistake is something defense lawyers will likely fight over.

Most importantly, the complete medical story of this child — what happened at the pool, what happened at the hospital, what happened in the morgue, and how he recovered at the second hospital — is not available in public records. Without those details, we cannot fully understand what went wrong.