Parents of boy whose heart stopped for 19 hours were stunned when it started beating again

DENVER — The family of a 4-year-old boy whose heart had stopped beating hours earlier gathered at Children’s Hospital Colorado last month to say their final goodbyes to Cartier McDaniel.

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.