VALDOSTA — Hero is a word that gets thrown around a lot. So much so, that many people have lost sight of what it means to be a hero in the first place. Pop quiz:

Q: Which of these three figures is a hero?

(A) A tween who rises from Canadian poverty to become the biggest pop idol of our time.

(B) A grown man who runs around in spandex, karate chopping obvious villains with snarling eyes and curled lips.

(C) A young boy with a unique heart-defect who faces death time and time again and survives through his own perseverance and determination.

Did you pass? The answer of course is C. If you chose A or B, you may have some reservations. You might be thinking, C sounds like a heart-felt character from a Nicholas Sparks novel. However, C is not a fictional character plotted to be played by Channing Tatum in this summer’s biggest, blockbuster movie, it is 17-year-old Lowndes High School student Denton Dye.

Denton was born July 20, 1994, to parents Keith and Shelley Dye. Denton’s birth was a unique experience for his parents, as one of life’s happiest moments is not usually coupled with one of its most terrifying.

“He was born with a condition called transposition of the great arteries (TGA),” said Keith.

TGA is a congenital heart defect in which the two major vessels that carry blood away from the heart — the aorta and the pulmonary artery — are switched (transposed).

“They had to fly him from South Georgia Medical Center to Shands in Gainesville,” said Keith. “The weather was so bad that they couldn’t get a helicopter in, they had to fly a jet.”

“Like a boss,” Denton laughingly interjected.

At Shands, the doctors performed a preliminary procedure called a cardiac catheterization (or balloon atrial septostomy) to temporarily alleviate the problem until Denton could have a life-saving surgery done to correct the transposed vessels.

“My mom didn’t even get to hold me yet,” said Denton. “They told my parents I was going to die.”

Awaiting surgery at just 2 days old, Denton developed pneumonia.

“This postponed things a bit,” said Keith.

Finally, at 12 days old, Denton was able to have a corrective surgery called an arterial switch. This surgery switches the great arteries back to the normal position and keeps the coronary arteries attached to the aorta.

“We stayed down there approximately a month because there was some recovery period after the surgery,” said Keith.

Though Denton’s surgery was a success, it was only the beginning of a battle that he would have to fight for the rest of his life.

“Part of the result of the surgery and part of the risk involved is when they detach these vessels and re-attach them where they belong is there is some risk of damaging the heart tissue,” explained Keith.

Some of Denton’s heart tissue was damaged as a result of the surgery. That damaged tissue, which in Denton’s case falls around “the trigger that tells your heart to beat,” manifested itself into a ticking-time bomb of problems.

“That happens in about 50 percent of the cases,” said Keith.

All was seemingly well with Denton until about two years ago when it was discovered that he had developed a cardiac arrhythmia problem called atrial flutter as a result of his surgery 15 years ago. In atrial flutter, the atria does not fibrillate but rather beats faster than the ventricles but in a coordinated, regular rhythm.

Ironically, Denton’s arrhythmia problem did not rear its head until he decided to make a healthy life change and began working out.

“I was tired of being fat. I wanted a girlfriend and they didn’t want to date the fat kid and I didn’t want to get Type II diabetes ... it’s more common in heavy people,” said Denton.

At just 15 years old, Denton set a goal for himself to defeat his obesity which had him weighing 265 pounds.

“I was the funny, fat kid,” said Denton. “I just wanted to see what it would be like to be skinny.”

Initially Denton jogged around his neighborhood and ate less. He never prescribed to any sort of diet that most people with weight-loss ambitions fall prey to. He began living his life using common sense.

“I just ate less,” explained Denton. “Just obvious stuff I quit eating, like ice cream ... just obvious junk foods.”

Through jogging and eating less, Denton lost 40 pounds. He began to see the new and improved Denton emerge out of a body that just couldn’t keep up with the life he had envisioned for himself.

“He proved that he was serious,” said Keith. “When I saw that he was committed doing this, we joined the Y.”

“It is very fun to stay at the YMCA,” chanted Denton as Keith laughed.

Denton began a rigorous work-out routine. Every school day, Denton gets to the gym no later than 4:36 a.m. and he stays there until about 7:30 a.m. He showers at the gym and goes straight to school. After school, Denton goes to the gym again and gets there at about 3:30 p.m. Weekends are relatively chill days for Denton in that he only goes to the gym once on Saturday and on Sunday he just jogs.

“I ended up losing like 90 pounds,” said Denton.

“This was over the course of like one year,” said Keith.

Though this would be a wonderful place to end a story of a young man who overcame all odds to defeat obesity while battling a heart condition, sadly, this is not where the story ends as a hero’s work is never truly done.

“One night I was on the elliptical,” said Denton as he began his epic tale. “I got off the elliptical and I felt weird ... and then I felt like my heart was stuck.”

What Denton was experiencing was the atrial fibrillation where the upper part of the heart beats (quivers) faster than the rest of the heart. People who experience this often liken the sensation to a motor idling too fast.

“After about 30 minutes, we went to the hospital,” said Keith. “They hooked him up to an EKG (electrocardiogram).”

Denton’s heart was stuck at 120 beats per minute.

“They gave him some medication that night that slowed his heart rate down and he was able to go home,” said Keith.

After this episode, everything was normal for about two weeks.

“And then we went to the race track,” said Denton as he emphasized this point harmonically as if to signify the point at which the final battle for his life would occur. “There was a wreck and I took off ... I had been sprinting and when I realized the guy was OK I stopped, but my heart didn’t.”

Experiencing the same sensation as two weeks prior, Keith and Shelley took Denton to the emergency room. This time his heart was stuck at 250 beats per minute. That night, the atrial fibrillation was not responding to the medication. At this point, a helicopter had to be called to take Denton to his specialists in Augusta. The doctors loaded Denton into an ambulance that was supposed to keep him stable until he could reach the helicopter at the airport.

“But we had complications,” said Denton. “I almost died again.”

The ambulance had a shortage of the medicine that was keeping Denton alive. Midway to the airport, Denton passed out and the ambulance had to immediately make a U-turn to the hospital to stabilize him.

In a turn of events that some would attribute to coincidence but Denton chooses to attribute to God, the helicopter that was waiting for Denton was needed for a baby who was having heart problems.

“I used to be that baby at one time,” said Denton.

Denton volunteered his helicopter to that baby in need. After a period of time which felt like days when your life is at risk, Denton was finally able to fly to Augusta.

“In Augusta, they actually had to give him an electric shock,” said Keith. “They had him in intensive care.”

The electric shock basically stopped and re-started his heart. This procedure only took about five minutes.

“That was hard to watch,” said Keith. “It was a really scary moment to see the EKG stop and be void of any bleeps or blips and then see his heart start beating again.”

 The next day, Denton had to have a procedure called a cardiac ablation which is a procedure that can correct heart rhythm problems (arrhythmia). Ablation typically uses catheters — long, flexible tubes inserted through a vein in your groin and threaded to your heart — to correct structural problems in the heart that cause an arrhythmia.

The cardiac ablation was an attempt to stabilize Denton’s heart; however, once the doctor got in his heart, he realized he couldn’t finish the ablation until Denton had a pacemaker implanted. The day after his cardiac ablation procedure, Denton had his pacemaker put in.

“It was really discouraging because every time I would wake up from surgery I would ask, OK, am I fixed?” Denton said.

Not quite fixed yet, one month after the first cardiac ablation, Keith and Shelley took Denton back to Augusta so that the doctor could finish the initial cardiac ablation.

“For all that we can tell it was completely successful,” said Keith.

Though this was the last of Denton’s surgery to date, it will not be the last of his surgeries.

“There may be problems down the road where he will have to have this surgery again,” said Keith. “There’s really no guarantee that there’s an end in sight.”

Aside from the risk of possibly having to have another cardiac ablation, Denton will have to have the batteries replaced in his pacemaker every seven to 10 years.

“I’m going to have surgery every 10 years of my life until I die,” said Denton.

Though these are challenging and scary prospects, Denton doesn’t let it consume his life.

“Everything that he has endured I think has developed his character,” said Keith. “I see that it has built determination in him.”

Determination doesn’t even begin to describe what drives Denton. With more near death experiences than even 10 people can count and dramatic weight loss of literally an entire person, Denton is a person that has experienced life — there and back — in just the mere 17 years he’s been on this Earth.

If the word hero could be replaced by any other name, it would be Denton Dye.

For more on this story and other local news, subscribe to The Valdosta Daily Times e-Edition, or our print edition.