Family says son was ‘heart dead’ for 14 hours

DENVER – Four-year-old Cartier Anderson’s family celebrates the miracle of life every day.

Destiny Anderson remembers a day in early April when her son developed a fever. The fever did not subside and Cartier experienced symptoms such as sleeping too much, pain, cold feet and abnormal behavior.

“I called the nurse and told her the symptoms he was having and she said, ‘Oh no, he’s breathing extremely fast. You need to go to the hospital,’” Destiny said.

On April 10, Destiny said she admitted Cartier to the hospital.

“I honestly thought Cartier had a cold,” she said.

Destiny said Cartier had suffered from other illnesses before, such as bronchiolitis, so she thought doctors were treating him and they would be home soon.

More than a month later, Cartier is still sleeping in a hospital bed.

“I play it every time I look at him,” Destiny said. “And I wonder, ‘If he had seen that and noticed? Would he still be in this condition?’”

She said doctors diagnosed Cartier with strep throat, which ended up being septic.

“It’s a pretty serious condition that usually requires admission to the intensive care unit,” said 9Health expert Dr. Payal Kohli. “Basically it means that an infection, usually a bacterial infection, has entered the bloodstream and is having devastating effects on blood pressure and organs. And that can be very serious.”

Destiny said Cartier was hooked up to a number of machines, including an IV and a breathing tube.

“Before I knew it, they laid him down and started CPR and I lost it,” Destiny said. “I asked myself, ‘What’s going on? What did you all do to him?’”

Cartier had suffered cardiac arrest. Within 24 hours of her arrival at the hospital, Destiny said, doctors gathered her family to deliver devastating news.

“They tell you in so many ways that your son is gone, but they don’t tell you that he’s gone,” Destiny said.

Destiny said Cartier’s father, Dominique, didn’t want to believe his son was dead. He decided not to withdraw Cartier from any machines and “leave the matter to God.”

Destiny said she stands by Dominique and believes there is still hope for her son.

“As I put my head down to cry, in the back of my mind I said, ‘He’s not gone,'” Destiny said. “Of course I cried, but I just couldn’t shed the tears that I felt like my mother wanted me to shed. Something in the back of my mind told me it wasn’t over and that was God.”

Cartier’s aunt Angela Maduro and grandmother Catherine Reid remained at Cartier after the news broke.

“At this point, we have done everything medically possible,” Angela said, repeating what doctors had told her family. “So at this point Cartier is what we call ‘heart dead’.”

Angela said her family surrounded Cartier’s hospital room with prayers in the moments after the doctors left. She said her sister applied blessing oils to every surface and her mother, Catherine, prayed loudly and fervently.

“I’m rubbing his hand and as I’m rubbing the prayer oil that my sister put on him, I look up and when I look up, the green line says ‘zzhhhup,'” Angela said. “I said, ‘Mom, did you see that?’ She doesn’t hear me. She is still praying and clapping her hands.

Catherine said she felt a presence in the room as she prayed. She said she felt as if there was someone standing at the end of the bed who couldn’t be seen or heard by anyone else in the room.

“I think God had the right people there,” Angela said.

“The doctor came back and brought other doctors and said, ‘I have good news,’ and I said, ‘I know,'” Catherine said.

Cartier’s family said doctors told them he had blood clots in his heart and put him on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine. Angela said at one point that this machine was the only thing pumping blood into her nephew.

“When someone has sepsis, the sepsis poisons the blood. If the blood is poisoned, the organs, including the heart, can fail,” Kohli said. “In this case, it sounds like the actual heart has stopped. So to keep the blood flowing when the heart wasn’t working, they put this little boy on ECMO, which was essentially an artificial heart pump that supplied oxygen and blood to all of his organs and somehow kept him alive.”

Angela said it took more than 14 hours for Cartier’s own heart to produce a heartbeat.

“I think everyone who was there knew it was special,” Angela said. “I mean, it was inexplicable. If you felt the energy in the room it would be crazy.”

“I’m still in shock when I look at him today,” Destiny said.

Destiny said of her seven children that Cartier was the “peacemaker.”

“He always wants you to be happy,” Destiny said. “If you’re doing well, Cartier is doing well.”

Destiny said last month that Cartier had improved greatly. He sees, he answers questions and his strep infection is almost gone.

“His eyes say everything,” Destiny said. “It’s amazing that he opens his eyes because he wasn’t.”

Still, Cartier’s family said he still has a long way to go before he is fully healed. His aunt has set up a GoFundMe to cover future medical expenses and support the family since Dominique lost his job due to spending so much time in the hospital.

The family especially asks for continued blessings and prayers as they are one of the reasons they believe Cartier is still with them today.

“Nobody understands why, but we do,” Destiny said. “It was God. That’s it. No ifs and buts. He was it.”

Kohli emphasized the importance of treating infections early and quickly. She said this could help prevent more severe symptoms from developing further.

“If you have a high fever that’s accompanied by a sore throat, or have other signs that it could be a bacterial infection, it’s never a bad idea to see your pediatrician. Make sure your child does not need antibiotics because…” “Treating the infection early and aggressively can prevent many of these types of complications, especially in our young children who may not always be vocal about their symptoms,” Kohli said.