A mother visits her daughter in the morgue to say goodbye. And makes an incredible discovery!

Sandra from Argentina already had four children when she became pregnant with her fifth. It was going to be a girl, and Sandra and her partner Martin hoped the pregnancy would go smoothly. Unfortunately, at 26 weeks, she started having contractions.

She was rushed to a hospital in northeastern Argentina. It was far too early for a baby to be born, but it happened. Little Emilia was born on April 8, 2017, nearly three months before her due date. She was incredibly tiny, weighing only a kilo and a half, and the worst part was that she appeared not to be breathing or showing any signs of life.

The doctors tried desperately to resuscitate her and called a neonatologist, but he couldn’t find any vital signs either. Emilia was declared stillborn, and a death certificate was officially issued. Her fragile little body was wrapped in cloth and placed in a small wooden coffin. Sandra had been anesthetized during the birth, and she had to be told what happened when she finally woke up.

She was completely heartbroken and couldn’t believe she had lost her daughter. Everything happened so fast. She felt a strong, undeniable urge to see her little girl, to make sure she was really gone, and to take a photo of her for the funeral. She told her husband what she wanted and convinced him and her brother to take her to the hospital morgue. Together, they managed to get permission from the doctors to do this.

More than 12 hours had passed since Emilia was born. As they walked down to the morgue, Sandra silently prepared herself for this moment. She was still incredibly weak from the delivery. You can imagine how she felt—no parent should ever have to experience the pain of losing a child.

At the morgue, Sandra and her partner Martin found Emilia’s little coffin. As Sandra leaned over the wooden box, she looked at the baby’s tiny body and gently touched her hand. Then, Sandra moved the cloth away from Emilia’s face just a bit. And then the unthinkable happened. The grieving mother suddenly heard a tiny cry and saw her daughter’s big, sparkling eyes looking right at her. She startled, stepped back, and said to herself:

“This is my imagination!”

Emilia had woken up right before their eyes, almost as if to say:

“Mom, I knew you would come for me.”

Everyone was stunned. How could this even be possible? While Sandra and her husband were paralyzed by what they were seeing, Sandra’s brother reacted immediately. He grabbed the baby girl and sprinted back to the neonatal unit with her in his arms. After the astonished doctors confirmed the child was indeed alive, Emilia was rushed into intensive care. They needed to warm her tiny body, provide oxygen and nutrition, and run tests to find out if she had suffered any severe damage from being left in the morgue refrigerator. Along with all this, they had to answer one main question: how could this have happened? While Emilia was undergoing treatment, her parents tried to come to terms with this massive emotional shock. They thought they had lost their daughter, but slowly began to process the reality that she was alive.

“I can’t explain what happened,”

her father, Martin, said.

“God just performed a miracle.”

The doctors couldn’t explain what had happened either. The hospital quickly launched an investigation to find out who was to blame for this terrible mistake.

“The involved staff must take responsibility and therefore be held accountable,”

said Juan Rodriguez, the Deputy Minister of Health for the Chaco region. Meanwhile, Emilia’s condition stabilized in the intensive care unit, and it was soon decided that she would be transferred to a hospital in Buenos Aires, which had a specialized neonatology department equipped with the most modern technology. Within a couple of days, however, everyone was gripped by a new fear when Emilia suddenly stopped breathing. Her heart stopped beating due to a hemorrhage in her lungs, requiring complex cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This episode caused irreversible damage to the little girl’s brain, and her parents were given the devastating news that only 10% of her brain was still functioning.

For the next 8 weeks, Emilia remained hospitalized in Buenos Aires. Every day she fought to grow stronger and gradually gained weight. Soon she was able to drink breast milk from her mother, which was a very hopeful sign. Unfortunately, the mounting pressure proved to be too much for her father; Martin couldn’t handle it and left Sandra and the children alone. Now Sandra had to carry the weight of everything by herself. Finally, after months of fear and anxiety following her turbulent birth, Emilia was strong enough to go home with her mother. Sandra had stayed by her daughter’s side the entire time and felt it was a true miracle to hold her and bring her home.

However, Emilia was still in danger. Over the next 15 months, she developed several severe health complications. She also faced major developmental issues. It was clear that being born 3 months premature, enduring 12 long hours in the bitter cold of the morgue, and suffering a cardiac arrest had taken a heavy toll on her little body. Sandra surrounded her daughter with all the care and love humanly possible, even though life was incredibly difficult and she was far from a wealthy woman. After many subsequent tests, doctors diagnosed Emilia with microcephaly, meaning her head and brain were not developing properly. The only potential treatment was a stem cell transplant—a highly complex and incredibly expensive procedure. Sandra didn’t have the money, but she thought perhaps she could take the baby to China for the treatment. She started a fundraising campaign, undeterred even when doctors warned her that Emilia wouldn’t be strong enough to travel.

Then, in June, tragedy struck again. Emilia suffered another cardiac arrest, and Sandra frantically rushed her to the hospital. The little girl was hooked up to a ventilator but remained in critical condition for hours. This time, cardiopulmonary resuscitation didn’t help. Her little heart finally gave out, and the sweet girl passed away. It is absolutely heartbreaking. I cannot fathom how Sandra felt losing her daughter for the second time, and this time forever. Sharing her profound loss with the world, Sandra wrote a deeply moving goodbye letter to her child. She wrote:

“Today, my love, we do not say goodbye because one day we will see each other again.”

She wrote about how profoundly grateful she felt for every single minute they were able to spend together. God had brought her into this world for this exact moment, and Sandra assured everyone that the one year, three months, and 15 days she spent beside Emilia made her the happiest woman on the planet. She shared her certainty that Emilia had a mission on this earth. One day, a young man had even come up to her and confessed that he had wanted to take his own life, but as soon as he saw how hard little Emilia fought just to live, he thought: why couldn’t he do the same? It is a story that gives you goosebumps, and I wish Sandra and her family immense strength in navigating this profound loss.