Joy-Anna Duggar's 13-Month-Old Son Rushed to the Hospital

The '19 Kids and Counting' alum shares three kids with husband Austin Forsyth.

By Anna Rumer

Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth rushed their 13-month-old son Gunner to the hospital after a recent choking scare. The 19 Kids and Counting alum, 26, and her husband, 30, recounted one of the scariest days of their lives in a video uploaded to their YouTube channel on Friday, June 14, revealing that the toddler had to be taken to the hospital after he "bit off more than he could chew."

Joy-Anna admitted she was "pretty shook up for a while" when her youngest "immediately started choking" after taking a bite of her food. "I was just feeding him a little bit off my plate, and I had a piece of ham, like Thanksgiving ham, and I was letting him chew on it and take a bite off of it, and he bit off more than he could chew and immediately started choking," the TLC alum shared.

The mother of three unsuccessfully tried to make Gunner spit the food out before handing him over to his father, who is an EMT. "I started crying 'cause I'm just like Lord, please protect him, like all of those what-ifs come to your mind right away," Joy-Anna said. Gunner did begin to vomit but hadn't thrown up the ham, "was gagging" and "was not breathing for like 20 seconds" at a time. 

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The little boy "was still struggling and was really, really lethargic," prompting his parents to take him on an hour-long drive to the hospital. It was a scary journey for the family, as the Counting On alum said Gunner stopped breathing a couple of times along the way. "I was just crying out to God like, please save him, and I've never been to a point where, like, I thought I was going to lose one of my kids, and it was just that thought of he is going to die came to my mind, and it just like was terrifying," she said. And so I was asking God, 'Please, please save him, please save him, Give us wisdom. Help us to get there.'"

Once the little boy fell asleep, he "started breathing a lot better," his mom noted, and upon arriving at the hospital, doctors determined that Gunner did not have anything lodged in his throat. "I was just so thankful that God protected him, and we made it to the hospital, and that whatever was in his throat wasn't bothering him anymore," she said. Joy-Anna and Austin are also parents to son Gideon, 6, and daughter Evelyn, 3.

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