Toronto's first newborn of 2012 dies

TORONTO, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The first Toronto-area baby born in 2012 died at the age of nine days, a week after being discharged from the hospital, medical officials said.

The baby boy's mother, Li Zhang, and father, Yichuan Lei, showed up Monday at the maternity ward at Scarborough Hospital with baby Ming Shui Lei, but the newborn was pronounced dead, the Toronto Star reported.

The couple immigrated from China less than a year ago. They missed two scheduled hospital visits for checkups Jan. 4 and the next day, but it wasn't known why. The Star said it also wasn't clear if the couple knew enough English to understand their instructions.

However, hospital spokesman Dave Bourne told the newspaper the hospital has both Mandarin and Cantonese interpreters who were available to patients if staff requested them.

An autopsy was scheduled on the baby Tuesday and the coroner's office was investigating, the report said.

Bourne said he couldn't speculate on why the infant died.

"This is not a common occurrence," he said. "Any time a baby dies, it is a tragedy. Our sympathies are with the family."