By One day, Cartier McDaniel, a little boy, woke up with a fever before it moved to chills, frequent urination, extreme thirst and lethargic behavior that concerned his mother.
When his breathing started becoming heavy, Cartier was rushed to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
“They’re saying your son’s not breathing, one, two, three — that’s all I remember hearing,” Cartier’s dad, Dominique, told Fox 31.
That’s where it went from bad to worse. “I had to carry him in because he just wasn’t moving,” Cartier’s mom said. “His mouth was turning blue and his eyes were sinking in.”
Doctors reported that Cartier had been diagnosed with strep A, resulting in sepsis, which triggered organ failure due to his body’s reaction to the bacteria. Despite attempts at CPR proving ineffective, they had to resort to ECMO, an abbreviation for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, to provide life support. ECMO functions as a support system for individuals whose heart and lungs are compromised and unable to function adequately.
Emergency room nurses rushed Cartier to the back, but within minutes, he went into cardiac arrest. NBC News reported about the little four-year-old and the miracle that happened right as time began to run out.
Some slept in the waiting room when they weren’t praying at Cartier’s bedside after doctors told his parents, Destiny Anderson and Dominique McDaniel, that it was only a matter of time before his life support machine wouldn’t be able to keep his body functioning properly without a heartbeat.
All attempts to restart his heart had failed.
“It was the worst moment of my life. The whole hospital room was spinning. I was shaking. I couldn’t believe it was happening,” Anderson said.
But in nothing short of a medical miracle to Anderson and McDaniel, their young son’s heart began pumping on its own again, 19 hours after it had stopped.
Cartier’s dad had one three-word statement when the doctors said they didn’t have a scientific or medical explanation for what happened.
“It was God.”
“God got the last say,” McDaniel said. “I know that God is real. I’m a firm believer in Jesus Christ.”
Both Destiny and Dominique have asked for continued prayers for Cartier. He will likely stay in the hospital for several more weeks, but he’s on the road to recovery and slowly getting his strength back.
