'Pediatric code blue:' How 4-year-old Jack Carlin was saved by quick action of mom, Huntington Hospital staff

In July, 4-year-old Jack Carlin stopped breathing, and a pivotal decision by his mother helped save his life. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie has more. Credit: Newsday/Kendall Rodriguez

By Olivia Winslowolivia.winslow@newsday.com @newsollieUpdated November 20, 2025

Maria Carlin, sitting among doctors and nurses at Northwell Health Huntington Hospital on Wednesday, recalled a harrowing night in July when her 4-year-old son Jack nearly died.

It had been a "beautiful" Saturday, Carlin said, and the family had spent the day on a boat with friends. "And Jack was jumping in and out of the water, like a little fish, like he always does," she said. "He was not sick at all." She said his only medical history had been a few bouts of croup, which the Mayo Clinic defines as an upper respiratory infection that leads to coughing that sounds like barking.

Late that night, Jack developed a "croupy cough," something that happened to him from time to time. Carlin, a nurse at Northwell Health North Shore University Hospital, gave him some medication, but soon thought he needed further treatment. At the hospital, "They get their meds, they got monitored, then they go home."

About 12:50 a.m., Carlin set off from their Lloyd Harbor home in the car with Jack, bound for nearby Huntington Hospital. Her husband, Stewart, stayed home with their other children, 7-year-old Luke and 2-year-old Emma, who were sleeping.

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

Northwell Health Huntington Hospital announced the "remarkable" recovery of a 4-year-old boy, Jack Carlin, with a rare condition who may have died but for the quick work of his mother and the medical staff.
Maria Carlin described in gripping detail how her son stopped breathing as she drove him to the hospital in the middle of the night in July.
Dr. Lee Smith, chief of pediatric otolaryngology at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, said Jack had a rare condition called laryngeal cleft, which causes liquids and mucus to get trapped in the airway. The condition was surgically repaired.

Just a few minutes into the drive, though, she knew she was in the midst of a life or death situation.

"I can hear that Jack is declining rapidly. His breathing started to get higher and higher pitched. And all of a sudden, it sounded like he was breathing through a ... straw. He was squeaking like a mouse, that's how little air he was getting. And all of sudden, I just heard him stop breathing. I just heard him fall forward in his car seat."

She had a "horrible" decision to make, she said: should she pull over, pull him out of the car and start CPR "on the ground, on a dark road ... and also get my phone and call 911?" She was halfway through the 10-minute drive to the hospital. Or should she continue to drive to the hospital, "knowing that my child's in the backseat not getting oxygen? Knowing that every minute that passes is another minute that [her son was] getting closer to permanent brain damage."

"But I knew if I could get him to the hospital ... that there would be a team there that could save him," she said.

When she got to the hospital, she blared the car's horn, then ran inside, carrying her limp son in her arms. Hospital staff met her — nurses Marisa Kelleher and Jenna Ciaccio and Dr. Jennifer Gibb, who led the emergency department staff that night. They immediately got to work getting Jack's heart beating again. Gibb also called Cohen Children's Medical Center, relating Jack's condition and treatment. The child was then transported to Cohen's for further treatment.

Gibb remembered "hearing a commotion in the hallway and somebody screaming 'pediatric code blue.' ... I dropped what I was doing and started sprinting ... The nurses met me ... The patient was laid down on a stretcher. We looked at each other," she said of the medical team, "we knew we didn't feel a pulse. We started CPR immediately" and administered "life-saving medication" through an IV.

By the time Dr. Lee Smith, Cohen's chief of pediatric otolaryngology, saw Jack, "he was doing really, really well." Smith praised "the heroic work" of the Huntington Hospital staff. "What we had to do is we had to look into why this all happened. What we uncovered is a laryngeal cleft, which is a rare condition where there's an abnormal separation between the trachea and the esophagus." As a result, liquids and mucus can get trapped in the airway, Smith said, and can cause a chronic cough, or chronic croup and recurrent infections. In Jack's case, the condition was "very severe."

Smith said Jack's condition was surgically repaired. "Jack's recovery has been remarkable."

Carlin recalled being stunned by a question Jack asked her when he woke up the next morning at the hospital: "'Mommy, why didn't you want me to go to heaven?' " she said through tears. "But it made me think ..., he was not with me ... the night this all happened. He was headed somewhere else."

On Wednesday, surrounded by media, Jack, playing with a toy truck on the floor, said, "Thank you so much."