Five-year-old Noah loves to splash and play with his younger sister in their pool.

“To see Noah in the pool is one of our greatest joys,” says his mom, Lisa. “He’s learning to hold his breath.”

“Nobody who meets him now can ever believe that his life was once very much at risk,” she adds.

But these simple pleasures seemed unfathomable when Noah was a baby. He was born with respiratory distress syndrome. According to his doctor, pediatric ENT specialist Samuel Ostrower, MD, Chief, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Noah’s airway was so narrow it was like breathing through a coffee stirrer.

“Once we had his airway opened, everything changed,” said Lisa. “That one procedure literally saved his life.”

“We definitely appreciate how far he's come and that he doesn't have any side effects or symptoms,” agreed Noah’s dad, Mike. “They have the expertise that we needed.”

“At Joe DiMaggio, the trust was instant,” Lisa concluded.