{"id":21980,"date":"2025-11-22T07:42:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=21980"},"modified":"2025-11-22T07:42:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:42:48","slug":"behind-one-moms-life-changing-decision-for-her-4-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/11\/behind-one-moms-life-changing-decision-for-her-4-year-old.html","title":{"rendered":"Behind One Mom\u2019s Life-Changing Decision For Her 4-Year-Old"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Maria Carlin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 4-year-old boy is alive today one year after a terrifying run-in with death and a mother\u2019s decision that may have saved his life. In July 2024, Long Island resident Maria Carlin decided to take her son Jack to the hospital. He had awoken in the middle of the night struggling with what appeared to be a croup-like cough that had progressed to the point where he was now struggling to breath. It was just a 10-minute drive from their home to Huntington Hospital in Suffolk County, but Carlin found herself making an impossible choice during the ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cPicture breathing through a milkshake straw, then breathing through a regular straw, then trying to breathe through a coffee straw. We got to a point where I said to myself, \u2018It doesn\u2019t get higher-pitched. \u2026 I know what comes next.\u2019 [His breathing] just stopped,\u201d Carlin told The New York Post<\/em><\/a>. Carlin, a nurse, now had an impossible decision to make: pull over and begin CPR on Jack, or continue to the hospital to get him more advanced medical attention. Feeling that Jack would need to be intubated, Carlin made the decision to keep going to the ER. \u201cI heard him slump over. I went to look back, and God said, \u2018Maria, don\u2019t look back. You made your decision. You\u2019re not going to be able to handle seeing him right now.\u2019 Knowing that you have a child in the back of your car who\u2019s not breathing and needs CPR and not doing that for them \u2014 I don\u2019t wish that scenario on my worst enemy,\u201d said an emotional Carlin.<\/p>\n

When Carlin frantically arrived at the hospital honking her horn, Jack was already turning blue. ER doctor Jennifer Gibb led the team that worked on Jack for ten minutes before he was revived. Gibb described the emotional moment to a local station. \u201cThe mom started cheering him on, saying \u2018C\u2019mon Jack,\u2019 and then it hit me \u2014 that human emotion. I got choked up because my own son\u2019s name is Jack.\u201d Jack was transferred to Cohen Children\u2019s Hospital, where it was discovered he had a very rare condition called a laryngeal cleft. It creates a separation between the trachea and esophagus. Surgery has since corrected the issue.<\/p>\n

One year after the harrowing incident, Jack was able to thank the team that saved his life. \u201cI brought in a dead child, and they brought him back to life,” said Carlin. The family took a celebratory trip to Disney World after the incident. Jack is now a healthy and thriving 4-year-old. According to The Post<\/em>, Jack enjoyed the Disney World Slinky ride and loves being in school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 4-year-old boy is alive today one year after a terrifying run-in with death and a mother\u2019s decision that may have saved his life. In July 2024, Long Island resident Maria Carlin decided to take her son Jack to the hospital. He had awoken in the middle of the night struggling with what appeared to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":21983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"\nBehind One Mom\u2019s Life-Changing Decision For Her 4-Year-Old<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A mom\u2019s faith and quick decision saved her 4-year-old son after he stopped breathing\u2014one year later, he\u2019s thriving and full of life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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