'Dead' baby wakes up before cremation

A Chinese baby that had been declared dead by a hospital was saved from cremation when it started crying at a funeral parlor in east China's Anhui province on Wednesday morning.

The baby boy, less than one month old, was sent back immediately to the Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital for emergency treatment after he was found alive by a staff from the funeral parlor in Hefei, the provincial capital.

The Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital had issued a death certificate for the boy. He would have been cremated under normal procedures, according to the Hefei Municipal Funeral Parlor.

The baby had suffered from congenital respiratory system malformation since birth and was critically ill. His parents agreed on Nov. 12 to give up his medical treatment, according to a staff member from the hospital.

"Because the baby still had life signs, we continued to give him transfusion to maintain his life for humanitarian reasons," said the staff member on condition of anonymity.

The reasons for the baby being mistakenly confirmed dead need further scrutiny, according to the staff member.

The baby boy is still receiving emergency treatment at the hospital.

A doctor and a nursing worker who were on duty on Wednesday and judged responsible for the accident have been suspended from work and laid off respectively, according to the hospital.

It is investigating the case and said it will release the results to the public in time.