A toddler who was declared dead after being discovered in a backyard pool in February was actually alive and found hours later in a room that serves as the hospital morgue, recently released police records show.

Two Gilbert police officers saw possible signs of life multiple times, but the child was still taken to the hospital's "cold room" after being treated by staff, according to the documents.

"Please do your thing and let me do my thing," Dr Aryan Toosi told an officer at one point, according to the report. "I went to medical school for a reason."

First responders were dispatched to the home at about 5.30pm on 8 February in response to a reported drowning. They performed life-saving measures on the child before taking him to a hospital where the boy was pronounced dead about an hour later.

About five hours later, police were notified that the child was indeed breathing, and he was flown to another hospital. The boy ultimately survived and has been released.

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