A Long Island 4-year-old and his mother shared an emotional reunion with the doctors and nurses who saved the boy’s life after he suddenly went into cardiac arrest.
Today, Jack Carlin is a typical boy who loves monster trucks. But in July 2024, his life nearly ended when he stopped breathing on the way to Huntington Hospital in Suffolk County. By the time he arrived at the hospital, he was pale, bluish around the mouth and not breathing on his own. Medical staff couldn’t find a pulse.
Jack’s mother, Maria Carlin, who is a nurse, said her son had been fighting what seemed like a familiar ailment — a croup cough. She loaded him into her car for the 10-minute drive from their Lloyd Harbor home to the hospital.
But halfway there, Jack suddenly stopped breathing.
“None of my choices at the time were ideal. They were terrible, but I had to decide,” Maria said.
Faced with an difficult decision — stop on a dark road to help her son or race to the hospital — she chose to keep driving.
“It was horrible making this decision,” she said, fighting back tears as she recalled that night.
At the hospital, ER doctor Jennifer Gibb led the team that met the concerned mother in the emergency bay and revived Jack within minutes.
“This is exactly why I do what I do,” Gibb said.
Even for a seasoned medical staff, the moment was deeply emotional.
“The mom started cheering him on, saying ‘C’mon Jack,’ and then it hit me — that human emotion,” Gibb said. “I got choked up because my own son’s name is Jack.”
Jack was later transferred to Cohen Children’s Hospital, where doctors discovered the cause of his cardiac arrest: a rare condition involving a separation between his trachea and esophagus. Surgery has since corrected the issue, and Jack has fully recovered.
His father recalled the moment his son regained consciousness.
“He just looked up at me and was just like, ‘Dad, can I have a hug?’ It was like he never missed a beat,” he said.
Jack returned to Huntington Hospital on Wednesday, nearly a year and a half after the medical scare, to personally thank the team that saved him.
“Thank you so much,” little Jack said, drawing applause from the room.
Carlin said her son’s recovery has led to questions she’ll never forget.
“He turned to me and he said, ‘Mommy, why didn’t you want me to go to heaven?’” she said.
For the Carlin family, the words are a reminder of how close they came to tragedy, and how grateful they are for the team that gave Jack another chance at life.
“I brought in a dead child, and they brought him back to life,” said Carlin.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC New York. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC New York journalist edited the article for publication.