Noxubee County sheriff back on the job after emergency heart surgery

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Noxubee County’s Sheriff is back on the job.

Emergency heart surgery has sidelined Sheriff Terry Grassaree for the past 9 weeks.

This week, Grassaree returned to his beat.

The sheriff’s heart had slowly been failing over the last year, without him realizing it.

That all changed two months ago after he was taken to the emergency room, and then rushed to Memphis for the surgery.

“They were talking about a heart transplant, which was a shocker, because I’m like well, how do I go from being up walking one minute, so now I’m almost dead?”

Sheriff Terry Grassaree’s heart was betraying him and he didn’t even know it.

“I knew I was feeling a little ill. I thought it was a cold, but the thing is that you know, I don’t drink. I don’t drink sodas. I don’t eat fried food. I do my running. I’ve got a workout. I’ve got a little gym in my house, so I figured it was just a cold and I had been to the doctor once or twice.”

An ER visit back in January changed everything.

That’s when the sheriff was rushed to Memphis to undergo heart surgery.

It shocked everyone, including his older brother, who believed a flashback helped give Grassaree the strength he needed.

“About 30, 35 years ago, my mom had an aneurysm. The doctors said she would never walk or talk again, but it was about 30 years later, she’s doing very well, so that came about by prayer. I believe in prayer and we just trust in the Lord that he would take care of him,” says Robert Greathree, Sr.

Nine weeks later, the sheriff has gone from a hospital bed back to the sheriff’s department.

Deputies said they’re glad to have their boss back in action.

“We had to take on extra duties. We worked around the clock. We did whatever was needed, just to make sure that the citizens were served and protected.”

It’s the support from those citizens that the sheriff says he’s so grateful for.

“The community was real good. They called me and they wished me well. Believe it or not, I could feel their prayers. When you go through stuff like that, especially when they tell you that they don’t think you can make it, it was a humbling effect.”

Although Grassaree is back on the job, doctors are making him take it slow.

He’ll start back working two days, while he continues going to therapy three days a week.