Harrowing Experience Prompts N.J. Mother To Encourage All Parents And Teachers To Learn CPR

OLD BRIDGE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A mother of three is warning parents everywhere to learn CPR after she and her family went through a gut-wrenching experience that could have ended a lot worse.

Theresa Reinel told CBS2's John Dias on Wednesday that her 3-year-old son, Joey, went into cardiac arrest while he was playing with his twin brother at a baptism party last month.

Family members quickly jumped into action and performed CPR. Joey's grandfather is a retired first responder and Theresa learned CPR when she was a lifeguard, so they are thankful that they knew what they were doing.

"He was blue and I said, 'Dad, start compressions' ... and I started to breath into him," Reniel said.

Police then responded and used an AED machine to shock the boy and help restore his pulse, CBS2's Dias reported.

"I felt for a pulse, did not find a pulse and then I began to bring in the AED," Old Bridge Police Officer Ronia Walrond said.

Joey was then rushed to the hospital, where he remained for 11 days, hooked up to machines and tubes most of the time. Doctors have to put a defibrillator in his stomach because he was too little for it to go inside of his heart. However, he's now home in Morganville, New Jersey, recovering and is doing much better.

The family still doesn't know why the little boy went into cardiac arrest. Doctors are still trying to figure it out.

Reinel is now encouraging parents and teachers to learn CPR.

"It is a 92 percent chance we would have lost him that day, so everything did come together," Reinel said.