Paul, the teenage son of Fox News host Bret Baier, says his recovery from open heart surgery is “going pretty well.”
The 16-year-old was forced to undergo emergency surgery last week after an MRI revealed that a golf ball-sized aneurysm had formed in his heart. It was her fifth open heart procedure since his birth.
“Tonight, @AmyBaier1 and I want to thank the @ChildrensNatl staff for once again saving our son Paul's life,” Bret Baier wrote in a Friday post on x (formerly Twitter). “You may have noticed that I have been absent from #SpecialReport for the past few days: our 16-year-old son had his fifth open heart surgery yesterday. This was unexpected and considered an emergency. He is doing extraordinarily well and we are incredibly grateful to the doctors and nurses at Children's National. Thank you for his prayers. “I'll be back on Monday.”
Baier included a clip of Mike Emanuel, Fox's chief Washington correspondent, in his post, replacing it. In the clip, Emanuel honorarily names Dr. Yves d'Udekem, chief of cardiac surgery at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., “winner of the week,” in a nod to Baier's regular segment on the show.
The ordeal began when Paul apparently contracted the common cold. Given his history of heart problems (he was born with five congenital heart defects), Paul's mother, Amy Baier, played it safe and took him to a doctor.
“The doctor, Dr. Stein, was very thorough and before we left, she said, 'Let's do a chest x-ray, just to make sure everything is okay,'” Amy said. People. The x-ray was sent to a cardiologist, who then recommended an MRI, which ultimately revealed the aneurysm.
“When the MRI comes back, they sit me down and say, 'This is really important,'” Bret Baier told People magazine. “And they didn't know if it could explode, but if it had, it could have been fatal in a matter of minutes.”
Doctors recommended that Paul undergo open heart surgery as soon as possible. Paul took the news well, his father said.
“At first he thought I was joking, then he sucked it in and said, 'Okay, let's do what we have to do,'” Bret Baier said. “He's always been that warrior, but this was a big thing to take in.”
“As he was walking away on the stretcher, it was quite difficult. Very emotional,” she added. “Then we had to wait for about 10 hours, which was unbearable.”
Ultimately, the aneurysm was removed, and Paul's doctors said he will likely never undergo an open-heart procedure again. He returned home five days after the operation and is now in his six-week recovery.
“I'm very grateful to have the community that I have and my life,” Paul told People. “A lot can change in a matter of five hours.”
Paul's mother, Amy, said the experience reassured her that it is always wise to exercise caution and get a second and third opinion.
“You can never be too safe, especially with cardiac children. The more you review things, the better. In this case, Paul didn't even have any cardiac symptoms. We just got lucky,” he said.
