When a family member becomes sick, it can have an impact on everyone in the family. That is especially true when a child is suffering.
One person who understands this very well is Brett Baier, the Fox News anchor. He has been very open about the journey associated with his teenage son’s surgeries. It was a heartbreaking issue that seemed to come out of the blue.
At first, his 16-year-old son, Paul, was experiencing a routine cold but it ended up being a life-threatening diagnosis. He had to go in for emergency open heart surgery, as they had found a golf ball-sized aneurysm that needed to be removed.
Paul was a very healthy boy and was active in sports, from golf to varsity tennis. Last year, however, doctors in Washington DC removed another aneurysm after his fifth open heart surgery. That aneurysm was very close to bursting.
Paul said: “I’m so grateful to have my life. A lot can change in a matter of five hours.”
The family split their time between Washington DC and Palm Beach. They thought that Paul was dealing with the rhinovirus at first but his mother, Amy, insisted that he had further tests because of a heart problem history. That is when an x-ray showed something unusual.
Amy said: “The X-ray showed something near the lungs. We sent it to his cardiologist just to be safe.”
The family was in Washington and they thought that they would just be going in for a routine checkup. Brett and Paul were shocked when the doctors told them that the mass was a dangerous aneurysm that had attached to Paul’s heart.
Brett said: “If it burst, it could have been fatal in minutes.” He was visibly shaken by the issue.
Paul, on the other hand, stayed relatively calm and said: “Okay, let’s do what we need to do.”
The father and son went to the golf course the night before the surgery to bond before it took place. Paul had beat his father on the final hole by chipping in a birdie. The next morning, he went in for a 10-hour operation.
The surgery was successful and they thought that it would be the last time Paul would have to go under the knife. Brett later showed a very powerful image, one that put Paul side-by-side with the image of when he had his first heart surgery when he was a few days old.
Paul is now on rest and recovery for six weeks and will be eating healthy and taking walks every day. Hopefully, he will be cleared to go golfing and play tennis again soon.
Paul said: “It’s important to be thankful for everything you have, every second of every day.”
His mother added: “We have a saying in the Baier family — ‘gratitude is the attitude. We learned that from Paul.”
Paul was born with five congenital heart defects and has gone through more than a dozen surgeries. Many people are shocked by how he maintains a positive attitude.
As of May 2025, Paul has not given any indication as to his health and no public updates have taken place. The last one occurred during the open heart surgery in 2024.
We hope the family is doing well and will continue to stay healthy.
