If you live in the Montevideo area, chances are you know Matt and Kayla Brown. You genuinely could not meet a more beautiful couple than Matt and Kayla. Matt, to me, is the definition of a hard-working family man who strives to provide for his wife and their five young daughters. I've always seen Matt as a very honest, kind, and humble man.

Unfortunately, Matt is experiencing a very scary and serious medical emergency. The following was shared by Kayla on CaringBridge.

"Friday, January 23, 2026

Matthew — strong, fit, hardworking, and humble — a devoted father of five girls and husband to Kayla, has had, to say the least, an eventful end to 2025 and beginning of 2026.

Over the years, Matthew had been relatively healthy. He struggled with some gout and high blood pressure, but for the past eight years, he had truly dedicated himself to a healthy lifestyle.

In December 2025, Matthew went in for his routine physical. Preventive care was addressed, and his family history was reviewed. While his symptoms weren’t the “classic” cardiac warning signs, they were persistent and concerning:

constant fatigue that rest didn’t relieve, lightheadedness, dizziness when standing, and becoming extremely short of breath during workouts — after only about 10 minutes. If you know Matthew, you know this was not normal for him. He is strong and capable of hard work.

His maternal grandfather died of a heart attack at age 48, and his uncle (his mother’s brother) suffered a widowmaker heart attack at 48 as well. Given this family history and Matthew’s nonspecific but ongoing symptoms — which could have been attributed to many things such as work demands, sleep issues, or stress — the decision was made to rule out his heart and pursue a full cardiac workup.

His cholesterol numbers looked fairly normal. An echocardiogram showed some mild increased workload on his heart related to high blood pressure but was otherwise reassuring. A Holter monitor, evaluating the electrical activity of his heart, showed short and overall normal findings. Despite this, he was referred to cardiology.

Due to insurance changes, deductibles, and the reality of how difficult it is to get timely appointments, we had only a short window to complete everything — and somehow, all of this occurred within a matter of days, spanning just a couple of weeks.

At his cardiology consult, after reviewing the largely normal workup, his cardiologist recommended a coronary CTA. As a family, we questioned whether this test was truly necessary — especially given the cost. We were advised to proceed. Looking back, this was nothing short of divine intervention.

The CTA revealed severe coronary artery disease — greater than the 99th percentile. His calcium score was in the 1400s. The scan also showed evidence of ischemia, meaning reduced blood flow to parts of his heart.

Given these findings, his cardiologist and primary care team agreed that aggressive management was needed, including a cardiac catheterization. Unfortunately, the earliest available date was February 6. In the meantime, Matthew was started on several cardiac-protective medications.

After further discussion with his care team, Matthew was instructed to present to the emergency room due to ongoing unstable angina and nonspecific chest pressure. We drove to St. Cloud in a snowstorm. Once there, all of his cardiac enzymes — including troponin — were normal. His EKG showed no evidence of an active heart attack. He was started on standard cardiac medications, and notably, his ongoing chest pressure and dizziness continued but finally resolved after receiving IV heparin — that was the scary part.

Matthew was admitted to the St. Cloud cardiac unit and scheduled for a coronary angiogram the following day.

During the angiogram, the interventional cardiologist stopped the procedure, stating that the blockages were too severe to safely continue. It was then that we received the news: Matthew would need open-heart surgery — a coronary artery bypass graft — and he would need six bypasses.

This wasn’t something that could have been predicted by labs or routine numbers alone. His labs looked good. His cholesterol looked okay. This is genetic cardiovascular disease. And again — divine intervention.

At this moment, Matthew is in the operating room at St. Cloud with Dr. Castro and his surgical team undergoing bypass surgery. His recovery will look different than originally expected, and he will spend some time in the ICU. So far, all updates have been positive, and the surgical team has been excellent about keeping us informed. Their goal today is six bypasses — they would be thrilled with six, five is expected, and four is guaranteed. Two of the additional bypasses involve very small or more distal arteries, so they will attempt those if the vessels are suitable, depending on how small they are. The procedure is expected to last approximately six hours.

We ask that you uplift Matthew with prayers, love, and support as we walk through this incredibly difficult time. We will continue to share updates as we are able."

Right now, Kayla's big ask is to keep Matt, their family, and his medical team in your prayers.

Please consider donating to their GoFundMe. Right now it's important that Matt can focus on healing. My hope and prayer is this will enable him to stress less and heal more.