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Newborn pronounced dead discovered alive

TORONTO, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A newborn girl who was discovered alive 90 minutes after a Toronto hospital pronounced her dead has triggered a review, a hospital official said.

The chiefs of Humber River Hospital's emergency medicine and pediatrics departments will review all procedures involving the sidewalk birth of an infant girl, the Toronto Star reported.

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The infant was delivered on a frigid sidewalk Sunday after her mother went into labor on the way to the hospital.

A pediatrics professor at the University of British Columbia told the Star that the cold temperatures could have reduced the infant's metabolism, slowing her heart rate to the point of stopping and being undetectable.

"The whole circulation would have stopped but the neurological condition of the child could be protected by the cold," Dr. Michael Klein said.

Less than two hours after being pronounced dead, police officers spotted the infant moving under a sheet and alerted hospital staff.

There was no information on the infant's condition or the condition of 20-year-old woman who delivered her.

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