BOONE, N.C. — There's photographic evidence that proves otherwise, but Donnie Yavelak met his newborn son, Levi, for the first time on Christmas Day.
Levi was born three days earlier, and photos exist of him lying on the chest of his father's unconscious body. As one life was beginning, the future of another one was uncertain.
Donnie, a 2010 graduate of Appalachian State, knows he's fortunate to be alive. Ten months after he went into cardiac arrest in the parking lot of his pregnant wife's obstetrician's office, Donnie and Pam were in a Kidd Brewer Stadium suite cheering on his alma mater during a Family Weekend football game against Coastal Carolina.