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Hero Kids Aid Mom After Cardiac Arrest on Road
16 Jul
Summary
- Mother collapsed while driving, daughter took control.
- Two young children provided aid during the emergency.
- The mother is a brain cancer survivor recovering in hospital.

A mother, Mary Vazquez, who previously survived brain cancer, is recovering in the hospital after experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest while driving. Her daughter, Samantha McCarthy, was with her and took control of the vehicle, steering it off the road into trees before calling for help and administering chest compressions.
During the critical moments, two young children, a boy and a girl, ran to assist. The boy offered a water bottle, which McCarthy used to help cool her mother. Vazquez spent four days on a ventilator at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox and has since had a pacemaker implanted. She is expected to leave intensive care soon and enter rehabilitation.