For Fox News anchor Bret Baier and his wife Amy, the unimaginable nearly became reality last year when their 17-year-old son Paul Baier faced his fifth open-heart surgery—a sudden, life-threatening emergency that upended their world.

Paul, who was born in 2007 with complex congenital heart defects, has endured a long and grueling medical journey. After undergoing surgeries as a newborn, then again at 10 months, 6 years, and 13 years old, the Baiers believed the worst was behind them.

But in April 2024, a routine illness turned into a terrifying ordeal. After Paul caught a common cold, doctors discovered a golf-ball-sized aneurysm near his heart during a chest X-ray and MRI—an unexpected and potentially fatal condition that demanded immediate intervention.

“The MRI comes back, and they sit me down and say, ‘This is a really big deal,’” Baier told People. “They didn’t know whether it might burst, but if it did, it might have been fatal in a matter of minutes.”

The family had almost no time to process what was happening.

“It was exponentially more stressful and emergent, and we weren’t prepared for it,” Baier recalled. “This happened literally within 12 hours… so it was a heavy lift.”

Thankfully, Paul made it through the emergency procedure and has been stable since.

“The recovery was awesome. The doctors and nurses at Children’s National Hospital in D.C. were fantastic,” Baier said. “And Paul is in the mind space [that] he just plows through it now.”

Now a high school junior, Paul is using his experience to inspire others. He’s launching a new podcast titled One Step at a Time to share his story and support others navigating medical challenges.

While he’s missed significant time in school, Paul remains active, plays sports, and is now preparing for college.

“Bottom line is, we want him to be a normal kid,” Baier said. “Seventeen years ago, we would be really, really happy to be right here — after that first surgery as a baby.”

“He does sports, he’s very active… he’s still beating up his little brother and the whole thing,” Baier added with a smile. “Everybody has something they’re dealing with in their family. This was our something.”

Outside his family life, Bret Baier made headlines this week for calling out explosive revelations tied to Obama-era intelligence officials. He reacted sharply to DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s recent claims, as well as Sen. Chuck Grassley’s newly released files on the Hillary Clinton email case—documents Baier called “really eye-opening.”

“This is the Trump investigation and this is what they’re putting out here,” Baier said. “Separately, Chuck Grassley has put out these files… and a lot of it is redacted. But I talked about both of those things with [James] Comey back in 2018. There was a major disparity.”

He also reminded viewers of the now-infamous Peter Strzok and Lisa Page text messages, which revealed blatant bias at the heart of the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe.

“You have Page and Strzok, the two lovers at FBI… and they come out with these texts of how biased they are against President Trump, and they’re in charge of the investigation.”

Baier’s comments reflect the growing frustration among many Americans who’ve watched years of deep-state corruption go largely unpunished—while President Trump faced relentless political persecution.