Michigan Toddler Weston Survives After 11 Minutes Underwater and 52 Minutes of CPR

The parents of 1-year-old Weston posted a hospital-room photograph with no caption beyond a heart, a cross and a prayer-hands emoji. The image needs little explanation once the facts of the crash are known.

Carissa was driving with Weston in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, when their vehicle left Bunker Hill Road and entered a pond near Acme Township. The family believes she suffered a seizure behind the wheel. A first responder entered the water, broke into the vehicle and pulled Carissa out. Weston was still inside.

His family estimates he was submerged for about 11 minutes. Rescuers then performed CPR for 52 minutes before they restored a pulse. Carissa was taken to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. Weston was airlifted to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids with life-threatening injuries.

He was critically ill, on a ventilator and unresponsive. Doctors told the family that even if he lived, it could take months to understand what recovery might look like. Neurology teams later said he was expected to survive.

Slowly he showed more signs of life: eyes opening, coughing, small responses that his parents, Bryce Thelen and Carissa, watched for hour by hour. In an update released around September 11, the family said Weston had woken up and was breathing without the ventilator. He was still agitated and appeared uncomfortable at times. Rehabilitation remains ahead, and the extent of long-term recovery is not yet known.

Grandfather Cory Kuchenberg called the move off the ventilator a major step and asked the public to keep praying for a full recovery.

The photograph shows Weston in his hospital room with the parents who watched strangers fight for his pulse, sat with him while machines breathed for him, and waited for him to open his eyes.

Source: Family statements from Bryce Thelen and Cory Kuchenberg, reported by UpNorthLive (WPBN/WGTU), Grand Traverse County, Michigan, September 7–11, 2026