On the Fourth of July, as fireworks lit up Long Island’s sky, a family in Rocky Point was preparing for something very different—to say goodbye forever to a man they loved: retired NYPD officer Alan Beck. But instead of planning his funeral, they witnessed a miracle.
“I stood outside the hospital room as they pulled the breathing tube from his throat,” said Alan’s son, Shaun. “We didn’t know what would happen. We had already grieved. We had already said goodbye. And then, suddenly, I hear his voice, and he’s looking at me with two thumbs up. He said, ‘Daddy’s all right.’ I’ll never forget it.”
Alan Beck had been a fighter his whole life. A former bodybuilder and a veteran of the NYPD’s 114th Precinct in Queens, he was injured in the line of duty during his 17th year after falling from a rooftop while chasing a suspect. He retired with back injuries and went on to live a quiet life on Long Island with his wife, Robyne.
Eight years ago, Alan suffered a massive heart attack—the kind doctors call “the widowmaker.” His heart was operating at just 10–15% capacity. At the time, he was placed on the heart transplant list. Then, incredibly, his heart began to heal, and they took him off the list. He defied the odds—no one imagined he’d have to do it again.
In late June, Alan caught COVID-19. Not long after, pneumonia set in, and he was taken to Mather Hospital with a fever and rib pain. What began as a cautious visit to the ER soon became a crisis. Alan went into pulmonary failure, then cardiac arrest—flatlining for eight minutes.
Machines kept his body alive as his heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver began to fail one by one. The ICU doctors delivered the unthinkable news to the Beck family: zero percent chance of recovery. He would never breathe on his own again. He would never wake up.
“They told us it would be cruel to keep him alive like that. We had to make the call to let him go,” Shaun explained. The family grieved. A priest read Alan his last rites. His funeral was planned. “We all cried. My mom was heartbroken,” Shaun said, his words heavy with the memory. “For a couple of days, it was like he was already gone.”
But then, on the Fourth of July, the miracle happened: Alan started breathing on his own. By the next day, the machines confirmed it: he was breathing at 100% capacity. Doctors removed the breathing tube, uncertain if he had brain damage or could speak at all. That’s when Alan stunned everyone with those two thumbs up and the three words his family never thought they’d hear again: “Daddy’s all right.”
In the days that followed, Alan’s lungs improved to over 90% function. His kidneys began working again. The liver recovered. One by one, the machines were disconnected. He is now fully alert, speaking normally, and undergoing physical therapy to walk again after days of sedation and immobility.
“He’s breathing completely on his own, eating on his own—no tubes, nothing,” Shaun said. “The doctors keep calling it a miracle. One told me he’s never seen someone that far gone come back.”
Alan Beck turned 62 on June 6. A loving husband to Robyne, father to Shaun and Mike, and proud grandfather to Oriax, he now has a second chance at life—one his family won’t waste.
Shaun explained that although his father couldn’t respond, he could still hear his family speaking to him. At one point, Alan described what seemed like an out-of-body experience—seeing a late uncle in a kind of circle. “His uncle told him, ‘It’s time to go back to the future,’” Shaun recalled. “And then he woke up.”
For the Beck family, that future is now about gratitude and togetherness. “We’ve always been close, but this brought us even closer,” Shaun said. “It’s something I hope gives other people hope, too. When it’s dark, and you think there’s no way out—sometimes a miracle happens.”
Alan Beck is still in recovery, but doctors expect him to walk out of the hospital very soon. And when he does, there will be hugs, tears, and smiles because, Alan himself said, “Daddy’s all right.”