Revived toddler still in hospital on respirator

SALT LAKE CITY — The Idaho boy who showed signs of life after being pronounced dead of drowning remained in critical condition Saturday at a hospital here.

The 22-month-old toddler was flown from Rexburg, Idaho, Thursday after a nurse preparing his body for a funeral noticed his chest was slightly heaving — an hour after he had been declared dead.

Logan Pinto was breathing on his own by late Thursday, but he was placed back on a respirator Friday.

Primary Children’s Medical Center spokeswoman Bonnie Midget said she wasn’t authorized to reveal whether the boy still was on the ventilator Saturday, but said his condition was unchanged and critical.

The boy’s story has brought calls from news organizations from around the country, but the family is turning down interviews, she said.

Logan wandered away from his baby sitter and fell into a canal near his home in Rexburg, about 275 miles east of Boise. The child was submerged for nearly 30 minutes before police found him a half-mile downstream.

An officer gave the boy CPR but the effort appeared to fail and he was pronounced dead, said Rexburg Police Capt. Randy Lewis.

After giving the boy’s mother and stepfather — Debra and Joe Gould — some time to say goodbye, Lewis said, Madison Memorial Hospital nurse Mary Zollinger began to prepare Logan’s body for a funeral home.

But when she looked at the boy, she noticed signs of life.