Jeff Brown is no ordinary guy. He has dedicated his life to helping others.
As a building manager in Toronto, he keeps a close eye on the needs of his tenants. But over the years, it’s Brown who has been in need of looking after. In fact, many refer to Brown as “the man with nine lives.”
“When they went in to do open-heart surgery, they found out I had minimum of seven strokes and three heart attacks because they see the scars on my heart,” Brown tells Global News.
But Brown’s medical issues did not end there. Just over two years ago, Brown suffered a massive heart attack while he was tending to a fire alarm in his building. He had four cardiac arrests and his heart stopped for 12 minutes. The paramedics and doctors working on him thought there was no way he would survive.
But Jeff had other plans.
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“At that point, I was in an induced coma for a week and they said to my partner, ‘If he comes out, he may have possible brain damage…. I came out and I went through rehabilitation, and they just sat there and looked at me and did not understand… ‘You are not supposed to be here.’ Well, that’s what everybody says. They say somebody is looking after you,” Brown recalls.
Given an extra lease on life, Brown is determined to make the most of his.
Jeff is currently living with just 30 per cent lung capacity. He says he lives one day at a time, enjoying every minute with his partner Cordell and giving back to those who need it.
Once or twice a month, he and his partner bring dinner to their local firehall just to say thanks for saving his life.
His nurses and doctors are always treated to something sweet at every visit so they know just how much they matter.
His acts of giving do not end there.
Recently Jeff came to the aid of a tenant who had fallen ill, helping her acquire a chair for her living room.
“My tenant next door was throwing out a great chair and I dragged it from next door to our building. With the help of another person coming in, we took it up to her apartment and it now looks great in her living room,” Brown says.
“A friend of Cordell’s and mine says, ‘Every time you do something good, you get a gold brick in heaven. So I guess that’s another brick.”
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