It was just an ordinary day last December for Mark Toothaker. He worked at Spendthrift Farm, went to the gym and settled in at home in Lexington, Kentucky, to watch the New York Giants play the New England Patriots on “Monday Night Football.”He never expected what came next.Watching from bed alongside his wife, Malory, who was reading a book, Giants kicker Younghoe Koo whiffed on a field goal attempt in a real-life scene reminiscent of Charlie Brown and Lucy in the “Peanuts” cartoon. Rewinding and watching the replay, Toothaker laughed so hard it caused a seizure.“I’ve never felt anything like this in my life,” Toothaker recalled. “I felt like I got electrocuted.”Malory happens to be a nurse at a rehabilitation hospital working for a brain-injury doctor. After initially thinking her husband was joking, she called 911 and paramedics arrived to get him to a hospital.A CT scan revealed a tennis-ball-sized tumor on the left side of his brain. “When you hear the news, ‘You’ve got a brain tumor,’ that’s what nobody wants to hear,” Malory said.Toothaker was transferred to the University of Kentucky’s hospital, where the tumor was surgically removed and turned out to be benign. He was home by the end of the week with no lasting damage. On Saturday, he will be at the Churchill Downs as Spendthrift Farm-owned Further Ado is set to run in the Kentucky Derby.He is thankful for that missed kick.“(The) kicker saved my life because it could’ve happened any other time,” Toothaker told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “I wholeheartedly believe I was in the right spot at th …
