Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Noah Mockovciak, Team Shaw child, lies in his bed at a hospital at Charleston, S.C., after open heart surgery, circa February 2017.Little guy, big fixed heart: part II
                        
                        
                        Noah Mockovciak, Team Shaw child, lies in his bed at a hospital at Charleston, S.C., after open heart surgery, circa February 2017. During the procedure, surgeons stopped Noah’s heart to mend a hole, a detached coronary artery and Truncus Arteriosus, a defect in which one blood vessel exits the heart instead of two. (Courtesy photo)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res
        


        U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ben Mockovciak, 372nd Training Squadron Detachment 202 F-16 tactical aircraft maintenance instructor, plays with his son, Noah Mockovciak, as Noah is fed through a gastrostomy tube in their home at Columbia, S.C., March 15, 2018.Little guy, big fixed heart: part II
                        
                        
                        U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ben Mockovciak, 372nd Training Squadron Detachment 202 F-16 tactical aircraft maintenance instructor, plays with his son, Noah Mockovciak, as Noah is fed through a gastrostomy tube in their home at Columbia, S.C., March 15, 2018. Noah’s throat and swallowing ability were damaged when medical staff inserted a breathing tube following a heart attack he suffered at one month old. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Kathryn R.C. Reaves)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res
        


        U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ben Mockovciak, 372nd Training Squadron Detachment 202 F-16 tactical aircraft maintenance instructor, right, and Ashley Mockovciak, Team Shaw spouse, left, stand with their son, Noah Mockovciak, at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., April 24, 2018.Little guy, big fixed heart: part II
                        
                        
                        U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ben Mockovciak, 372nd Training Squadron Detachment 202 F-16 tactical aircraft maintenance instructor, right, and Ashley Mockovciak, Team Shaw spouse, left, stand with their son, Noah Mockovciak, at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., April 24, 2018. Noah underwent heart surgery when he was one month old to correct congenital heart defects. The surgery resulted in Noah’s improved health and development. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Kathryn R.C. Reaves)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res

Little guy, big fixed heart: part IIPublished May 2, 2018
                    
                    By Airman 1st Class Kathryn R.C. Reaves
                    
                    
                    20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
            **SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (AFNS) --**When Ashley and Tech. Sgt. Ben Mockovciak, 372nd Training Squadron Detachment 202 F-16 tactical aircraft maintenance instructor, learned their son Noah, barely one month old, had experienced a heart attack, their world was turned upside down.Sitting in a room at the Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital after the early morning rush in an ambulance, the family was faced with an uncertain future.The hospital’s doctors made a plan to monitor the infant overnight before he was transferred to Medical University of South Carolina for more tests and, before long, surgery. While Ashley went home to prepare for the trip to MUSC, Ben stayed with their son.The plan quickly fell apart.Reliving the previous horror without the support of his spouse, Ben watched his son stop breathing again as he went into cardiac arrest. The father called for the nurse who immediately began CPR, working to revive Noah for nearly 15 minutes. “It sucked just being completely helpless,” said Ben. “You just don’t know what to do in a situation like that. One minute my son’s in my arms breathing and happy and smiling, the next he’s not breathing and there’s a bunch of people around him doing CPR.”Noah began to breathe again with a tube in his throat, which was later learned to have damaged his throat and swallowing ability.Within hours, a new plan formed as a helicopter was prepared to transport him to MUSC days ahead of schedule.Terrified for his son, Ben struggled with the idea of returning to the academy when the weekend was over.“I called my boss and let him know what was going on,” said Ben. “He said, ‘Don’t go back to the academy. Just go be with your family.’”The husband and wife followed their son to a second hospital, only seeing him for an hour before he was put into a medically-induced coma.“We didn’t realize at the time, but that was the last time we would see him with his eyes open for the entire week and the last time we got to hold him for about a month,” said Ben.The next day, Noah experienced his third heart attack.“That’s when they started to explain the odds to us, about survival and brain damage just because the (more) CPR you do, the more likelihood of brain cell loss and all this stuff, so it was really overwhelming to just take all that in,” said Ben.Noah’s doctors asked the new parents to consider signing a “do not resuscitate” form.“That’s when you think hope would die,” said Ashley. “I think that was the moment that my heart really broke. From that moment, we were kind of wondering what to do, but honestly we didn’t want to give up on him because we knew our son and we just knew he was going to fight through it.”The Mockovciaks reached out to family and friends for support as Noah approached his surgery. Friends and fellow Airmen checked on the family throughout the hospital stay, bring along changes of clothes and food.When surgery day arrived, the parents cried and prayed as they held on to their son’s blanket for hours sitting in the waiting room while their child was operated on.In the operating room, surgeons stopped Noah’s heart to mend a hole, a detached coronary artery and Truncus Arteriosus, a defect in which one blood vessel exits the heart instead of two.After his successful surgery, Noah’s health began to improve quickly over the coming month. Following weeks of therapies, medicine and parent training, baby Noah returned home.“He came home again and we were even more nervous,” said Ashley. “We had a baby with a (gastrostomy tube) who just had open heart surgery and we were even more delicate than we were with him the first time. (Even after all the training) you’re not really prepared for it. You’re not really prepared as a fist-time mom or a first-time dad to be open-heart surgery and G-tube (baby) parents. It’s a little extra work and that becomes your norm. You don’t know any different. You don’t know what normal is anymore.”With a fixed heart, Noah attends regular therapies and medical appointments to grow stronger and healthier. “Ashley’s been doing a great job with all of that,” said Ben. “I had to go back to work so she’s been amazing with the baby and all his therapies. He’s got his cardiology appointments, his gastrointestinal appointments, nutritionist, and his pediatrician, so she’s always on the move. She’s probably the best mom in the world.”More than a year later, the Mockovciak family continues to make strides with the support of those around them.“We have such gratitude in our hearts for the support,” said Ashley. “It’s hard if you don’t have support. We did and we were lucky. We had our church family, our (blood) family, our friends, and then we had the military family.”Surrounded by love, Noah is growing as a happy and healthy toddler.“If anybody meets Noah, they’ll know how sassy and how much of a fighter he is,” said Ashley with a smile on her face. “I think I admire that about him, because he’s so full of life, so full of fight. There’s no doubt in my mind that’s why he survived. He fought and lived. That’s why God gave us him, to give us a fighter.”Air Force 



Air Force family 



CPR 



AF 



children 



Air Force Base 



neonatal intensive care unit 



Congenital heart defects 



neworn 



Month of the Military Child 



health 



Parents 



family 



Airmen 



Shaw AFB 



20th Fighter Wing 



Fort Jackson 



love 



20th FW Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                SecAF, CSAF, CMSAF begin Indo-Pacific trip focused on ACE
                    
                    DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fightInnovation
                F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing
                    
                    AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalistsMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil