Mom had a seizure behind the wheel — how 8-year-old saved her life

JACKSON — An Ocean County mom is bursting with pride after her 8-year-old son saved her life — taking quick action when she suffered a seizure behind the wheel.

Nicole Sorchinskiboy said she and Jace were en route to a McDonald's in Jackson on a day off from school on Monday, when she suddenly felt ill

"I started getting what they call an aura, as my neurologist describes it," Sorchinskiboy said. The aura and seizure are the result of a traumatic brain injury she suffered in a car crash two years ago. It brings the taste of copper to her mouth.

Sorchinskiboy said she pulled the car over and her son asked her if she felt okay. As she was about to call her father, who lives nearby for help, she passed out.

"The next thing I know I am being pulled out of my car by a Jackson police officer, EMTs and paramedics. They told me that I had no pulse and they were about to do CPR, but I came back out of the seizure," Sorchinskiboy told Townsquare Media New Jersey News. "I started screaming and crying at the top of my lungs for my son. They advised me, and their exact words were, 'Your son just saved your life.'" 

The officers told Sorchinskiboy her son unbuckled himself from his car seat in the back, got to his mother in the front seat and called 911 on her cell phone. He was able to tell the dispatcher his mother had stopped breathing, describe their car and clearly give his location.

Sorchinskiboy said Jace told her he he rubbed her head and kept saying "Mommy, please don't leave. Your baby's here. It's going to be okay." When help arrived, he jumped out of the car and flagged down the first-responders.

"My son had basically called them and said 'I need help. Please help. My mommy stopped breathing,' and at that point he was so amazing it just blows me away," Sorchinskiboy said.

She praised Jackson Police and first-responders as being amazing — and was surprised that Jace was so calm.

It was the first the second-grader had witnessed his mother have a seizure.  The seizures usually happen at Sorchinskiboy father's home, a doctor's office or at a hospital.

Sorchinskiboy said the "tears just kept flowing and flowing" as media reports about Jace came out.

"Every mother thinks their kid is the best kid out there, but for an 8-year-old to realize something's not right is just so wonderful," she said.

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