Football Fan's Laughter Reveals Life-Saving Brain Tumor

Mark Toothaker was watching Monday Night Football in bed when a kicker completely whiffed on a field goal attempt. He rewound the replay and laughed so hard it triggered a seizure that revealed a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball.

The 59-year-old stallion season manager from Lexington, Kentucky, had no symptoms and no idea the tumor had shifted his brain 6 millimeters to the right. His wife Malory, a nurse who works for a brain injury doctor, immediately recognized something was wrong and called 911.

"I've never felt anything like this in my life," Toothaker recalled. "I felt like I got electrocuted."

A CT scan at the hospital revealed the massive tumor on the left side of his brain. Doctors at the University of Kentucky surgically removed it, and fortunately it turned out to be benign. Toothaker was home by the end of the week with no lasting damage.

Sunny's Take

The timing was miraculous. In the months before his seizure, Toothaker had driven and flown across the country for work. He could have been behind the wheel or on a plane when the seizure struck.

"I didn't kill anybody. I didn't run over a family," Toothaker said. "That would've been the hardest thing for me to live with if somebody would've got hurt out of this."

Instead, he was safely at home in bed when the laughter triggered the seizure. His wife's medical background meant she knew exactly how to respond. The tumor was discovered before it could cause permanent damage or put others at risk.

Toothaker has a sense of humor about the whole thing. He said he'd love to invite kicker Younghoe Koo as his guest to the Kentucky Derby, though he recognizes the missed kick wasn't exactly a career highlight.

"I wholeheartedly believe I was in the right spot at the right time and he was the trigger for that happening," Toothaker said. "It was a miracle."

His wife Malory says things are completely normal now, and they both feel incredibly fortunate. So many people aren't as lucky when brain tumors are discovered.

Sometimes life's most embarrassing moments lead to its greatest blessings.