Jimmy Carter the 39th president of the U.S., was the proud patriarch of a large family, having four children (Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy) and several grandchildren, one of whom was Jeremy Carter, the son of Jeff and his wife Annette.
In an interview on The Lead with Jake Tapper in July 2015, the former president talked about his large family, sharing how much he and his wife Rosalynn delight in spending time with their loved ones. “We have a big family now. We have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, 38 of us in all. So, we try to hold our family together and just enjoy the family life.”
In Dec. 2015, Carter shared the joyful news that he was cancer-free after his battle with brain cancer, a relief that brought hope and happiness to his family. The celebration, however, was short-lived, as about two weeks later on Dec. 20, he delivered the heartbreaking news that his grandson Jeremy had tragically passed away at the age of 28. He broke the news at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, where he regularly taught Sunday School. Attendees reported that Jimmy arrived unusually late to the class, having received the tragic news of Jeremy’s passing just hours earlier.
On the day before his death, Jeremy was not feeling well and took a nap. His mother Annette then found him unresponsive, and he was immediately brought to the hospital, where he later died.
Jeremy’s brother penned a heartbreaking post about his death
While news reports offered no further details about Jeremy’s untimely death, his brother Josh took to his blog to share his grief, expressing that his “thoughts are disjointed” and he felt “raw” from the loss of his brother. According to him, he received a call from his brother at 10:10 pm on Dec. 19, telling him that they were at the hospital with Jeremy. Josh and his other brother, Jamie, rushed to the hospital to be with the family, and it was there that he learned that his brother had a heart attack at home and their mother performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
By the time Josh arrived at the hospital’s emergency room, his brother’s organs had started shutting down, but doctors were rapidly working to save his life. “Jeremy had IV’s everywhere; leg, groin, arm, thumb. He had saline, epinephrine, blood, potassium, vial after vial after bag after bag after syringe,” Josh wrote. At about 1:50 am on Dec. 20, Jeremy’s heart stopped beating. CPR was administered for 10 minutes, and doctors told the family that they could continue, but there was most likely to be severe brain damage by that point. Jeremy’s family decided that it was best to stop, and he was declared dead at 2:00 am.
In his post, Josh also mentioned that Jeremy had undergone “a battery of tests” just months before he died due to a loss of appetite and leg pain. He was prescribed Vitamin A and Vitamin D, but his results didn’t show anything alarming. It isn’t clear whether his passing was the result of an underlying illness. “I am going to miss you buddy. I love you Jeremy,” Josh ended the post.
During his Sunday School class on the day of Jeremy’s death, Jimmy described his grandson as a “very special child” who turned into a “wonderful young man” that everybody in the family loved.