In his role as guidance counselor at North Penn High School, Patrick Brett deals with students daily who need direction and want to fulfill dreams.
The dichotomy is Brett could never fulfill his dream of running around the baseball diamond and cracking a ball into center field. While his heart is strong in passion for his job and in love for his wife, Lauren, their two softball-loving daughters, and quickball-loving 4-year-old son, his heart was too weak for Brett to play baseball, football, basketball, or any sport in general.
According to Montco.Today’s Tracey Romero, Brett’s heart condition sidelined him from his dream of being a professional baseball player.
Brett’s condition came to light at age 14 during a basketball game, per the report. He suddenly passed out on the court and was rushed to the hospital. He was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia,
he told 6abc earlier this May, and doctors told him to give up any dream of playing any sports he played as a child.
However, Brett found a savior in his baseball coach, who consoled and assured him Brett would be coaching the team next to him once he is cleared from the hospital, per the report.
According to 6abc, it was Brett’s way of staying connected to the games he could not play anymore.
Brett went from helping his grade-school coach, to becoming the team manager for his high school baseball team. He continued coaching in college, and now changes lives as assistant coach at North Penn High.
In 2021, life would throw yet another curveball – a series of complications with medications worsened his condition and demanded the need for a liver and heart transplant.
"October of 2019, my heart and liver were injured with thyroid toxicity, and I just never recovered,” Brett told 6abc. "After waiting over six months for the phone call, I woke up with a new heart and liver, came home, and I’ve been living this life, doing things that I’ve never been able to do.”
With a new lease on life, Brett and his family, who live in Blue Bell, will be a part of the Gift of Life Donor Program for Organ Donor Awareness Night at the Phillies game Saturday night. According to Montco.Today, Brett will be sponsoring a young transplant recipient who is throwing out the first pitch.
The Gift of Life Donor Program estimates more than 100,000 people are awaiting transplants and gifts of life. "It doesn't take much to become an organ donor," Brett told 6abc. "Your legacy will live on within somebody else like my donor's legacy is living on in me."
