Extra special Father’s Day; son’s schoolwork saves father’s life

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — For one Lexington family, this Father’s Day is extra special, more so than any previous year.

That’s because this year they get to celebrate not just the contributions of their father, Greg Brown, but his life because he almost didn’t make it here.

“You don’t take anything for granted. I’m blessed,” says Greg Brown.

MedQuest College student Hunter Brown needed some extra practice for his sonography/echocardiography program last summer.

That’s when he asked his dad if he would let him do an ultrasound scan of his heart.

“We finally set up a date and came in and the next thing I know it’s more than I bargained for,” says Greg.

It started out light-hearted. Greg wanted to get some selfies with his son checking him out.

“He’s serious, and I’m like dude if I knew you were going to be like this I wouldn’t have come. I was like can you at least smile for the camera and let us take one cause he’s sitting there stressed out, and looking back I know why,” says Greg.

Because what Hunter found was a life-threatening heart condition, aortic stenosis.

“I could see his heart was severely calcified and his aortic valve. It was the worst thing I had seen, so I knew something was very wrong,” says Hunter.

His instructor confirmed it and told Greg he needed to get to a doctor immediately. So he did.

“He went in, immediately came back out and said ‘You can’t leave this hospital. You’re having open heart surgery first thing in the morning’,” says Greg.

Not only that, the doctor told him if he hadn’t come in then Greg would’ve died in less than a month.

“It was crazy, fast. But thank God he did what he did,” says Greg about Hunter scanning his heart.

What Hunter did was save his father’s life. We asked him how that felt.

“It’s overwhelming. I mean, I’m glad he’s still here obviously. It’s a pretty crazy feeling. It’s nice,” says Hunter.

“It’s just hard to describe it. You never think something like this is gonna happen to you,” says Greg.

The family’s history of heart problems is what led Hunter to this field.
He’d lost his brother and grandfather because of it but it wasn’t going to take his father, too.

“He talked me into coming here and then I get to have another Father’s Day,” says Greg.

A miracle happened all because a son needed help from his father with his school work.