A moment feeding a little boy's heart, a swearing in. Sheriff Chris Nocco himself doing the honors.
"Perform the duties of Pasco County of which you are about to enter, so help me God," said Sheriff Nocco.
Deputizing Brave Wetherington. Such an appropriate name for a little boy fighting for his life, after diagnosed with a weak heart.
"If he doesn't have a surgery coming up he will die," said his mom Stephanie Wetherington.
Wetherington adopted Brave two years ago from China after losing a biological son to a heart defect, just years earlier.
She was determined to help another little boy and just a few months ago she witnessed her 12-year-old with a renewed fight to live.
"He started to run and play and so he started dreaming of a future," said Wetherington.
Brave wanted to be just like his uncle, a lieutenant with the Pasco County. When Sheriff Nocco, a father of three himself, got wind of Brave's dream he set into motion to make it come true from flying in a helicopter to full access to the Swat vehicles.
"If it is making a little boy who is facing challenges bigger than we are facing have a smile on his face, that is what this is about, that is what life is about," said Sheriff Nocco.
It could be one of Brave's last memories. Later this month he will undergo a life or death surgery.
"The risk of this surgery is very great and we could walk out of those doors without him," said Wetherington.
But she's confident these few minutes gave her son a fighting chance. Real inspiration for the Brave's long road ahead.
"Right now we are choosing hope," said Wetherington.
The family will head to Boston for the surgery.
