An 8-year-old is recovering after suffering cardiac arrest on a Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ship near Nassau with his extended family.

Noah Anderson, of Cincinnati, was revived and intubated after suffering the arrest on Friday. He was on holiday with his parents, two brothers and maternal grandparents.

The boy is at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida.

Noah was running down stairs when he went into cardiac arrest, Sarah Anderson told The Cincinnati Enquirer in a Facebook message Sunday.

“(His father) Grant was 15 seconds behind him and started CPR right away. My father just happened to be right there soon after as well and also helped with CPR until the ship doctors arrived,” Anderson said.

Noah was going to be airlifted off the ship, Anderson said, but was not stable enough to be lifted in a basket to the helicopter.

“The cruise ship turned around and returned to Nassau,” Anderson told The Enquirer.

“Noah and Grant left the ship via ambulance to a hospital in Nassau. They were there for several hours while the air ambulance was arranged and (they were taken to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital).”

Anderson has been posting updates on her Facebook page and said in a Saturday post that Noah was swollen and that his first words were, “It’s itchy!”

“Tears of gratitude for my No-No. So incredibly grateful he is still himself.”

Anderson also said on Facebook Saturday that, “I have been blown away by the love and support you all have shown. You have encouraged me minute by minute.

“Our God is a God of the details, and He is seeing to each one of our physical, mental and emotional needs.

“Please continue to pray for all of us for strength, stamina, and clear-headedness as we make decisions … with the care team,” Anderson said.

“He is currently unhooked from all his IVs and oxygen and just has his heart monitor and pulse oximetry,” Noah’s mother, Sarah Anderson, said in a post Sunday afternoon on her Facebook page. She is the children's pastor at Vineyard Church Northwest in Colerain Township.

“Tomorrow he will have a cardiac MRI. Tuesday he will undergo surgery to have an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) implanted,” Anderson said.

“We hope to be discharged on Wednesday and home by the end of the week.”

A GoFundMe page established for the Anderson family says they are widely known and respected. Noah's father is the principal at Whitaker Elementary School in Finneytown. The page had raised $22,445 of its $50,000 goal as of Sunday night – one day after its creation.

In a Sunday afternoon update, Anderson said, “The progress in 24 hours is remarkable. Noah has gotten dressed, walked to the bathroom, had some jello, played some video games and talked to all of his visitors.

“He is doing ok. Feeling lots of emotions as he processes the events that happened and the fact that he has to have surgery (he’s scared he will die during it) and to have a ‘heart machine.’

“We are feeling very optimistic and confident in the plan. Dr. Kantor, the electrophysiologist, is amazing. He is a good friend of Dr. (Timothy) Knilans, our EP doc in Cincinnati that has taken care of me since I was 12,” Anderson said.

“We are surrounded by love, peace, amazing family, friends, nurses and doctors.”