Newborn Carol Zaslow’s chances were slim-to-none. Born at Cedars-Sinai three months premature on Dec. 6, 1945, the infant weighed just 14 ounces. The odds of her survival were 1 in 50,000.
Carol’s doctors provided her with breastmilk via an eyedropper. After a few weeks, the eyedropper was replaced with a feeding tube. The liquid nutrition, coupled with the Jewish hospital’s incubators for preterm infants as well as skilled obstetricians trained in the latest scientific advances, allowed the fragile baby to beat the odds.
Carol not only survived—she thrived. The “miracle baby” grew up in Westwood, graduated from USC with a triple major in English, social services and education and went on to start a family with her husband, David Zaslow. They had two daughters, Tracy and Carrie, both of whom became doctors, crediting their mom for inspiring their respective career paths. Tracy is a primary care sports medicine physician in Los Angeles, and Carrie is an ophthalmologist in New York.
Coinciding with Mother’s Day, Cedars-Sinai recently published an article about their former patient. The medical center said Carol’s long life was centered on family and service. She spent several years as a kindergarten and first grade teacher in the Inglewood Unified School District before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Believing helping others was fundamental to a fulfilling life, she started a D.A.R.E. program at her daughters’ elementary school, served as a Brownie troop leader and was elected to the board of a nonprofit literary arts organization.
In her third act, Carol, an empty nester, became a published children’s author, co-writing an award-winning series of books called “Little Kids do BIG Things.”
Last year, Carol was admitted to Cedars-Sinai for mitral valve regurgitation, a progressive heart-valve disease. She was readmitted several weeks later due to surgical complications. On June 10, 2022, she passed away.
Carol believed happy, healthy kids become compassionate and engaged adults—an outlook that informed her life’s choices. To honor that legacy, while showing appreciation to the hospital that always felt like family, the Zaslows, who are Jewish, recently launched the Carol Zaslow Memorial Fund, which supports pediatric research at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s.
As of press time, the campaign had raised more than $170,000 of its $200,000 goal.
“Driven by the idea that investing in children’s health is so critical because they are tomorrow’s adults, and understanding pediatric research has always been underfunded, our family has decided that the Carol Zaslow Memorial Fund will be dedicated to furthering pediatric research to be able to maximally impact lives for generations to come,” the family wrote on Carol’s memorial page.
This past weekend marked Carol’s daughters’ first Mother’s Day without their dearest mom, the woman who at birth defied all medical expectations and went on to live a long and meaningful life. In interviews with Cedars-Sinai, the Zaslows discussed the various ways they remembered Carol, a wife, mother and grandmother.
“Maybe I’ll make her famous lemon Bundt cake, and I definitely will set aside some time to read a book,” Carrie said. “My mom loved to read.”
Tracy’s Mother’s Day plans included being “together with family and sharing our favorite memories of her.” One of those memories involved when Carol was in the hospital last year. “I’ll never forget her radiant smile when her two granddaughters made a surprise visit and showered their grammie with big hugs,” Tracy told Cedars-Sinai.
For Carol’s husband, David, Mother’s Day was an opportunity to reflect on how “blessed [he was] to find such a wonderful, caring, kind woman to be my wife,” he said. “Carol truly was a miracle baby, and that blessing led to our wonderful, very accomplished daughters who were blessed with their own children—our five happy, healthy, bright grandchildren who bring so much joy. The odds were stacked against Carol, but look at the legacy she left.”
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