How A Rumson Mother's Intuition Saved Her Olympian Son's Life

RUMSON, NJ — A.J. Muss, a Rumson kid who you'll see compete in South Korea in a few days, almost died four years ago. In fact, he was declared clinically dead for a few seconds after a complication developed from shoulder surgery. Now he'll compete as a snowboarder in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

It was the care of medical staff and, ultimately, intuition from his mother, that saved his life.

A.J. was always an athletic kid. Born in New Brunswick and growing up in Rumson, New Jersey, he confidently scaled the jungle gym as a toddler, recalls his mom, Arlette Muss. And he comes from a family of athletes: His sister, Alexa, gravitated toward a more Jersey Shore sport, surfing, which she now competes in worldwide.

As an attorney, Arlette Muss often took her son on business trips with her out West, and would enroll the 3-year-old boy in ski school while she met with clients. So when A.J. showed a serious aptitude for snowboarding around the fifth grade, she and her husband, Jonathan, made the commitment to pack up and move to Vail so A.J. could train year round. That's toddler A.J. with his parents, in the featured image.

As with any serious athlete, there were injuries along the way.

"He's had a fake finger put in, a fake thumb," his mother laughed. "Over the years, you can't go unscathed."

In 2014 doctors decided A.J. needed routine shoulder surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder that kept popping out. The surgery was done at Vail Valley Medical Center on April 23, 2014, a date Arlette will never forget.

They were at home.

"The surgery went well. For the first 24 hours A.J. was recovering and everything seemed fine," she told Patch. "Then day two. I just knew something wasn't right. We went for a walk and A.J. was so lethargic. He told me he had to lie down. I assumed he needed to rest, but I knew something just wasn't right."

Doctors had warned that her strapping, 6-foot-2, 220-pound 19-year-old son would be in pain, and they told her he should take it easy following surgery.

"But it was more than that, I just knew it," she said. "I watched him all day really carefully. He usually has a great sense of humor, and he wasn't laughing. I remember at 8 p.m. that night I called my girlfriend and told her, 'I really think something is wrong.'"

Arlette couldn't leave his side. That night, she slept on the floor of his bedroom and set her alarm for every hour to check on him. At 3 a.m., he stopped responding.

"I watched him slip into unconsciousness. He went from talking to me to not talking to me. If I hadn't done that ..." she mused. "If I had slept in my room that night and slept 'til 5 a.m., I would have woken up and he would be dead."

A.J. was still breathing, but barely. Arlette immediately called his surgeon, who told her to call 911. EMTs rushed A.J. to the nearest hospital, Summit Medical Center in Frisco. There, the diagnosis was made: A.J. had developed pulmonary edema, which is when fluid collects in the lungs. It can be a fatal complication after surgery.

It was "a perfect storm" of factors that caused it, Arlette explained: First, Vail is at a high altitude, 9,000 feet. There are already lower levels of oxygen in the thin air. Secondly, the surgery had taken several hours and had severely slowed A.J.'s breathing. Third, unbeknownst to anyone, he had a hole in his heart, a congenital condition that about 25 percent of the population is born with. However, due to the stress from the pulmonary edema, his heart was now severely struggling to pump blood.

A.J. was dying.

He was put on a ventilator and life support. His heart stopped several times and he was declared dead at one point.

The hospital couldn't support him, and it was dangerous to keep him at such a high altitude. Doctors wanted him airlifted down the mountain to Denver Medical Center. But a storm rolled in. They would have to go by ambulance. The Colorado Department of Transportation opened a closed mountain tunnel so A.J.'s ambulance could get through. Arlette followed behind them in her car.

"I just remember a nurse screaming, 'Get that tunnel open!'" she said.

It was touch and go for the next several days. At one point, Arlette was on her knees on the floor of his hospital room, crying. Suddenly, A.J. opened his eyes. With the ventilator in and unable to talk, a tear rolled down his cheek and he gave her a thumbs-up sign.

It was a secret symbol mother and son shared for years. Whenever A.J. got into a bad accident, whether it was snowboarding or his other daredevil hobby, drift car racing, if he gave his mom the thumbs-up symbol, it meant he was going to make it.

"Right then, I knew he was going to make it. I told all the doctors, 'He's going to be OK,' " Arlette said.

What saved him was the very fact that he was such a well-conditioned athlete. When he first slipped into unconsciousness, A.J. was at a 30-percent blood-oxygen level, which is usually fatal. But doctors theorized there was enough blood in his well-developed muscles to sustain his brain.

However, A.J. lost a lot: When he woke up from his coma, he had to learn how to read and write all over again. His memory can still be hazy.

But he went on that year to have the best athletic season of his life, and he qualified for the Olympic snowboarding team in January. Watch A.J. compete in the parallel giant slalom Feb. 22 and Feb. 24.

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What advice does Arlette have for parents of children who choose extreme sports?

"What my son and daughter do, I'll be honest, it scares the hell out of me. Alexa almost drowned in Hawaii last winter. But in the end, I wouldn't change a thing," she told Patch. "I think you need to let your kids go after their passions. Everyone has a passion and mine were lucky enough to discover it at such a young age. I applaud my kids for getting outside and chasing their dreams."

And as a parent, always trust your instincts.

"Thank God I was there. It was definitely my instinct that told me something was wrong that night," she said. "To be honest, I wish I had trusted myself more earlier on."

Photos provided by the Muss family.