Back in 2019, five-year-old Landen Hoffman and his mother Kari went to the Mall of America to meet a preschool friend and his mom. The children were playing on the third level of the mall while their mothers watched nearby when suddenly a man grabbed Landen and threw him over the balcony, falling nearly 40 feet.  “It was like…you don’t — you can’t move. You’re just stuck,” Kari told Kare11. Kari raced to reach Landen when she caught the attention of two pediatric nurses that were passing by. The two nurses administered CPR to Landen while Kari said she stopped and prayed for him. “I just believed it right that second that God was going to save him. I said, ‘No, the devil is not going to take his life. He is going to live.’ And I was focused and I kept that and I looked up and everybody was staring. And I said, ‘Pray, just pray. You have to pray,'” said Kari.

When Landen arrived at the Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, Kari continued to pray for her little boy and the doctors working on him. Kari also described how she was able to forgive the man that did this to her son by saying, “I forgave that man because I felt like I needed to remove him from my brain so that God had the space that he needed through me to heal Landen.” Landen suffered a brain injury, shattered wrists, hands, elbows and face, along with a broken femur. After four months, Landen was released from the hospital. “I don’t know what the future holds for Landen, but I’m not worried,” Kari said. We’ll just take it one day at a time. I don’t think ahead, I just stay in my lane and focus on what Landen wants to do today. We’ll think about the future later.”

Nearly four years later, Landen has made a full recovery, recently turning nine in January. He enjoys all things hockey and playing with his sister. Kari says that his brain injury made Landen go from a shy little boy to a much louder and impulsive child. As for Landen, he says he feels completely “normal,” which is a gift in and of itself.