Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery Director Jeffrey Blount, M.D., hit the slopes last Thursday with a long-time patient, 8-year-old Thomas Summers, according to Park City, Utah, newspaper the Park Record.

Dr. Jeffrey Blount

After Summers received a hemispherectomy at only 7 weeks old, his parents said they weren’t sure whether he would ever walk, talk or retain the ability to learn properly as a result of this rarely performed, complex epilepsy procedure in which one hemisphere of the brain is disconnected from the other, but Summers defied their expectations. Years after his surgery and after he and his family moved from Birmingham to Utah, Summers now enjoys what any other child in Park City would. He likes to play outside with his brother, watch sports on TV and traverse the local ski resorts on his own, conquering nearly every intermediate run at Park City Mountain Resort.

Blount has stayed in contact with Summers since his surgery, so when he saw Summers’ photos of his ski trips on Facebook, he reached out to ask if he wanted to go skiing together, as Blount regularly takes ski trips to Park City, himself. On Thursday, Summers got the chance to show off his skiing skills for Blount, the doctor Summers’ parents believe saved their son’s life.

Read more about this story from the Park Record here.