An Argentine woman who insisted on seeing the presumably lifeless body of her premature baby found the infant alive in the drawer of a hospital morgue.

Authorities say the girl had spent 12 hours in the refrigerated room at the Perrando de Resistencia hospital in northern Argentina.

Analia Bouter tells Todo Noticias television that she thought she was hallucinating when she looked at her infant in the morgue drawer and heard a whimper and saw signs of life.

Doctors say the girl is now in good condition.

The girl was born on April 3 after just six months of pregnancy, and the hospital issued a death certificate, saying she died of unknown causes, Bouter said.

Bouter says doctors have told her that "nobody knows how she could have survived 12 hours in a refrigerated room."