Brent Freeburg grew up in Saranac Lake and currently lives in Redondo Beach, California. He made national headlines in 2018 when he saved a man’s life while working as a cameraman on the reality TV show “Below Deck.”

After being hospitalized for several weeks now, he is starting to make small improvements in a long recovery process. Freeburgh’s cousin Jane MacMurchy is organizing a GoFundMe for his medical transport expenses at tinyurl.com/mvwyar3n.

“It’s been devastating,” Freeburgh’s cousin and Saranac Laker Brittany Sternberg said. “Brent is a special person in our family.”

He’s the type of person call all the cousins and talk for hours at a time. He brings family together, she said.

Saranac Lake native Brent Freeburg recently came out of a coma in California. His family is raising money to transport him here as he recovers. Here, he stands with his mother, Saranac Laker Cheri Fisher, as she wears a shirt commemorating the time Freeman saved a man’s life while filming the reality TV show “Below Deck.” (Provided photo)

Last month, his family hadn’t heard from him in a few days, so they asked a neighbor to check on him. He was hospitalized on Feb. 15, suffering two strokes and a subdural hematoma.

“At first we didn’t know, ‘Is he going to wake up at all?'” Sternberg said.

It was scary, she said. He had emergency surgery, was in a medially induced coma with breathing tubes and feeding tubes, contracted pneumonia and was showing signs of seizures. But he was recently transferred from the Intensive Care Unit to the Progressive Care Unit.

Sternberg said progress feels slow, but he is becoming more coherent and more like himself. He can open his eyes and focus on people or squeeze hands to answer questions. His friends and family are sending him recordings of their voices.

“He appears to be reacting to those in a way like he has his memory, like he’s there,” Sternberg said.

His mother, Cheri Osborne Fisher of Saranac Lake and brother Eric Freeburg have been by his side around the clock. MacMurchy said their family has been sharing stories and “Brentisms.”

In a short amount of time, they went from not being sure he’d survive to feeling hopeful. But Freeburg is looking at a long road ahead.

With such a long-term recovery, Freeburg’s family wants him close to home. MacMurchy said a medical plane to transport him from California to the East Coast is “extremely expensive” — estimated to cost $60,000 to $100,000 per flight. They think two flights might be needed.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the GoFundMe had raised $76,968 of a $500,000 goal through 913 donations.

“For now, the goal is to raise enough funds to use a Medical Air Ambulance when he is ready to move to the east coast,” MacMurchy wrote in the GoFundMe. “The rest of the funds will be to ensure he is able to receive the care he needs for his stroke recovery and necessary expenses of rehabilitation.”

He might transfer to a rehab on the West Coast first while the family takes turns flying out there so he’s not alone.

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Breaking the fourth wall

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Freeburg’s hospitalization and the GoFundMe made headlines in People magazine, Yahoo News, US magazine and the Independent because of his work behind the camera on reality TV shows. More accurately, it was because of his work in front of the camera on the sixth season of Bravo’s “Below Deck,” when he saved the life of deckhand Ashton Pienaar.

The show’s cast were sailing the superyacht “My Sienna” in Tahiti when Pienaar’s leg got tangled in a towline and he was pulled overboard and underwater, while being dragged by the yacht. Pienaar later said he thought his foot was going to be ripped off by the pressure, or that he’d drown.

Freeburg dropped his camera and started untying the towline from the boat. This quick thinking is one of three things captain Lee Rosbach said had to happen for Pienaar to survive the incident.

“Brent made the decision to break the dreaded fourth wall and quickly went from spectator to hero,” MacMurchy wrote. “‘Brentrick,’ as we lovingly call him, however, was always our hero.”

Pienaar recently posted messages of support for Freeburg on Instagram, saying Freeburg left an impact on his life he can never repay.

“It’s a tough thing to process when someone who’s given you so much is now facing their own battle,” Pienaar wrote.

The attention from fans of the show has brought attention to the GoFundMe, too.

“We’re very fortunate that he has those connections,” Sternberg said. “I don’t think that everybody gets the same amount of attention.”

She said these connections come from who he is as a person and how he conducts himself in the world.

Freeburg grew up in Saranac Lake with three brothers, a step-brother and a step-sister. The GoFundMe said they spent long hours adventuring through the mountains. Freeburg followed his brother Eric into the camera operation field, and has worked on shows like “Dance Moms,” “Survivor” and “The Bachelor.”