Young boy’s heart restarts after 14 hours of fervent family prayers, stunning doctors

A young Colorado boy whose heart had stopped for 14 hours is alive and well this week after he experienced a miraculous recovery that left doctors baffled.

Medical experts don’t quite know what to make of the situation from a scientific standpoint, but the boy’s father is certain his faith in God delivered his 4-year-old from death.

The saga was documented by KDVR and shared by the Denver news station on Tuesday. Four-year-old Cartier McDaniel was rushed to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora after experiencing fatigue, chills, thirst and other symptoms.

Within minutes, the situation deteriorated, and the boy was on life support after his heart stopped beating.

A case of Strep A turned into sepsis, the child’s doctor explained.

With CPR ineffective, doctors put the 4-year-old on a type of life support called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

ECMO machines can keep a person’s blood oxygenated even when their heart stops beating and their lungs seize up. They are similar to machines used during lengthy open-heart surgeries, according to Yale Medicine.

In the case of McDaniel, his heart sat still for 13 hours while the ECMO machine kept him alive.

Dr. Aline Maddux, who worked to save the boy, explained to KDVR, “His heart stopped beating. We tried to revive it, and there was fear that he might not survive this.”

Maddux added, “The longer the time period the heart isn’t beating, the more concerned we are that it’s not going to restart.”

McDaniel’s mother, Destiny Anderson, feared for the worst, she told KDVR. Meanwhile, the boy’s father Dominique McDaniel said he turned to prayer as the family prepared to say goodbye to a child whose life had yet to truly begin.

“It’s time to go talk to God. It’s time to talk to the man upstairs,” Dominique McDaniel told the Denver Fox affiliate. “Let them see who you are. Jesus, come now.”

Then, something even Dr. Maddox couldn’t explain happened: Cartier’s heart started beating again after 14 hours.

“His heart just restarted,” the physician said. “That was really an incredible thing that occurred.”

Anderson said when her little boy’s heart restarted she expected grim news but was instead informed of the wonderful reality that her little boy’s heart was beating.

“Everybody else was jumping up and screaming and everything,” she said. “I just still couldn’t process what was going on.”

Dominique McDaniel told KDVR that his son was saved by prayer.

“God got the last say-so,” the faithful father told the station. “I know that God is real. … I’m a firm believer in Jesus Christ.”

Cartier McDaniel is not out of the woods quite yet, so his parents are asking for continued prayers.

But the prognosis is positive, even if it means he might have to spend the next few weeks or months hospitalized while he regains his strength.