BILLINGS — As workout class participants at the YMCA get their hearts pumping, there is one man in the class who is thankful his heart is still able to.
Billings Fire Department Capt. Chris Lowe was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect at 18, but doctors said he would be fine to continue living normally.
“Doing sports, wrestling, things like that,” Lowe said on Tuesday.
He was fine for decades until he wasn’t. Lowe first passed out during a run.
“I woke up on the sidewalk,” the 41-year-old said.
Then it happened again during a workout class at the YMCA, but he kept making excuses.
“Because it was so hot. Because I was dehydrated. It was so easy to excuse it away,” Lowe said.
Last May, it happened again and he couldn’t ignore it. Lowe was playing basketball at the station when he fell to the ground.
Paramedic Wyatt Kueker jumped into action.
“So, with me being the sole paramedic of the day here at the station it was my duty to take care of him. Everybody was looking at me, here you gotta do this, you got C-Lowe, you take care of him,” said Kueker.
Kueker went from playing a leisurely game of basketball to being the first step in saving his captain's life.
A few days later, Lowe was getting open heart surgery at St Vincent Regional Hospital.
“(Doctors) said this is getting to the point that you might not wake up if you pass out again,” Lowe said. “It was a definite emotional shock.”
Lowe was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis and underwent a complicated surgery that included having his own pulmonary valve switched to his aortic valve and then replacing the pulmonary valve with a cadaver value. Dr. Simon Maltais, a cardiac surgeon at St. Vincent, performed Lowe's surgery and said the case was severe.
The surgery that Lowe chose to have is fairly rare, with only 20 people having it at the hospital in the last year.
Less than a year later, Lowe is back to working out and firefighting.
“Pretty awesome to see him back on the job now and fully functioning and running miles like we always have,” Kueker said.
Lowe wants to remind others to not make the same mistakes he did when it comes to health.
“Don’t be like me and don’t make excuses. So, even if you think you might be able to excuse it away, don’t. Go get it checked out,” Lowe said.
