The parents of a newborn in Faisalabad are demanding a criminal investigation after hospital staff declared their baby dead and issued a death certificate, only for the child to be found alive as family members prepared for the funeral.
The incident unfolded Tuesday morning at a private medical facility. Doctors handed the infant to the father, claiming the baby had succumbed to complications shortly after birth. The family was given a formal death certificate and transported the child home to begin burial rites.
“We were devastated,” the father told reporters outside the hospital. “We had already made the arrangements. We were ready to bury our child.”
As relatives gathered to perform the final rituals, they noticed the child’s chest moving. A closer inspection confirmed the baby was breathing. The family rushed the infant to a different facility, where doctors confirmed the child was alive and placed them in an incubator.
The initial hospital’s administration has yet to provide a coherent explanation for the error, blaming it on a “miscommunication” between the labor room staff and the nursery. Senior doctors have been suspended pending an internal inquiry, but the family remains unconvinced by the internal review process.
Local police confirmed they have received a formal complaint. Officers are currently reviewing the hospital’s medical logs and the circumstances under which the death certificate was signed by the attending physician.
This case has reignited public anger regarding the state of healthcare oversight in the province. For the family, the focus remains purely on the infant’s recovery. The baby is currently in critical condition, fighting for survival in a neonatal intensive care unit.
“They didn’t just make a mistake,” the father said. “They broke us.”
