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ballerina, one of the world's leading dancers. but days after russia invaded ukraine, smirnova pirouetted and stepped off the stage at the bolshoi theater with dramatic fashion. >> i was so ashamed of russia. this is the true -- i am not ashamed that i'm russian, but i'm ashamed because of russia started this. >> three, two one. >> jacob smith drops into the bill coulier. 1400 foot chute. that dot is him, making his way turn by turn. a wrong move can be catastrophic. the run has a 50 degree slope, which means if you slip down the coular, there's little chance you can stop yourself. we thought you should see this, because he cannot. jacob is legally blind.

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good evening. i'm jon wertheim. welcome to "60 minutes presents." tonight, stories that inspire. we'll meet ukrainian dancers pursuing their art while in exile and a teenage skier who flies downhill without the aid of eyesight. but we begin with a tale of certified heroes. in 1904, 180 americans were trapped by fire in a pennsylvania coal mine. two heroes went in to save them. but the rescuers and all but one of the miners perished. still, that act of heroism touched one of the richest

americans, a man whose steel mills were fired by coal, andrew carnegie donated more than 100 million dollars in today's money to recognize heroes in the u.s. and canada. as scott pelley first reported in 2021, a good deal has changed in 118 years. thousands have been awarded the carnegie hero medal and advances in neuroscience are revealing why some of us may be heroic. we'll get to the science, but first, meet some of the carnegie heroes including terryann thomas. >> i remember thinking just almost instantly, i am not going to let somebody die. >> reporter: terryann thomas was a civilian overseeing confiscated property at the headquarters of the topeka police department. in 2015, an agitated man came into the basement property room to demand his bicycle. thomas turned to find it. >> as soon as i turned around and started to walk off, i heard a scream.

>> reporter: the scream came from officer tammy walter. for reasons we don't know, she'd been attacked by the man in the property room waiting area. thomas hit a panic alarm and charged out of her locked room. >> and so, as i ran out there, i saw there was blood on the wall and she was down. and she was not moving. and i went over there, and i pulled him off of her. he looked at me and he punched me in the face. he turned around and he started back on her. he's kicking her while she's on the ground, and constantly punching her, so i went and grabbed him again and i pulled him off. >> reporter: help was slow in coming. it seems no one had triggered the panic alarm before. so, the cops upstairs weren't sure what it meant. >> he grabbed something off her gun belt. and i thought, okay, he has her gun.

this whole thing has just changed. he hit the elevator button and he looked at me and he said, you're coming with me. >> reporter: later, it turned out it was the officer's radio the man had, not her gun, but thomas didn't know that in the fight. >> reporter: what happened then? >> and so i put my foot in the door. it opened up. and with everything i had, i grabbed him and i pulled him out of the elevator. and just as soon as we got out, i ran to the door. i opened it, and i just started screaming. and that's when all the officers came in and took him down. >> reporter: a topeka cop reported that story to the pittsburgh headquarters of the carnegie hero fund commission. eric zahren is president of the commission. he's a former secret service agent. >> well, we look at up to 1,000

cases a year. and we award about just a little over 10% of that. so, in recent years, that equates to about 80 cases a year. >> reporter: how do you define hero? >> and we define it as, at least in terms of our medal-awarding requirement, as a man or a woman that willingly and knowingly risks their life to an extraordinary degree to save or attempt to save the life of another human being. >> reporter: what are some of the things that your investigators go through when they're investigating a case? >> we write to or contact police departments, fire departments, the victim in the case, who was the rescued party, and other eyewitnesses to the act. and we start to build an understanding of each case. >> reporter: and this is the medal. the carnegie medal, molded in bronze comes with $5,500 and other financial support. >> we also pay for funeral costs fully for a hero that is killed in the act. we pay for any medical costs for any injury that they incur, to include psychological after-effects, ptsd. we don't present a medal and walk away.

we stay there. and we stay there for the hero's lifetime, and sometimes far beyond. i mean, we were recently looking at a case that, you know, a gentleman was killed in his heroic act. and we supported his wife, and then one of his daughters for a total of 72 years until his daughter died. >> on the beach on that day, i just reacted. >> reporter: pete pontzer, fit the carnegie definition of hero. he was on a north carolina beach in 2015 when someone pointed to a boy swept away by a rip current. pontzer and another man swam about 150 yards. >> and we found a young teenager, 13-year-old boy. and water was starting to wash over his face. >> reporter: this is the boy after they swam him back to shore. >> as we get to the beach, a church youth group leader comes out and meets with us. and he says, thank you. there's another one. >> reporter: a second boy was drowning.

pontzer ran, broke his foot, ignored it, and swam out. he eventually lost sight of the boy but the child was pulled from the water by others and flown to a hospital. so why you? >> i didn't think about it. it's kind of like if you put your hand on a hot stove and pull it back right away without thinking. that's kind of what it was like for me. it just needed to be done, and i did it. >> reporter: it was the same reaction for david mccartney when fate arrived on a two-lane road in indiana. >> i was heading south. and there was a vehicle that seemed like it was going a little bit left, a little bit right. then all of a sudden it was right. and it hit a culvert. >> reporter: what happened next? >> you could start seeing smoke. it was starting to bellow out, and you could start hearing, miss testerman, who i come to find out, was starting to scream because the vehicle was actually starting to catch on fire. >> reporter: elizabeth testerman was trapped. >> she's sitting there screaming.

underneath, the dash is on fire. the smoke's just going through your nose. and you're trying to figure out, well, what to do now. >> reporter: mccartney and another man kicked in her windshield and cut her seat belt with a knife. >> we pull her feet out. and then we kind of wiggle up to that windshield that was kicked out. and then we pulled her over to the grass and laid her down. >> reporter: a minute later, he told us the car exploded. that fear of dying in a car is well known to abigail marsh. she's not a hero, but she was saved by one. at age 19, she was on an interstate at night and swerved to miss a dog. she went into a spin, which left her facing lanes of high-speed traffic in a car she couldn't restart. >> and i spent some amount of time 100% certain i was about to die. i mean, i was -- you know, any one of these cars hadn't swerved in time, and i definitely would have been dead.

>> reporter: what happened? >> i hear a rap on the passenger side window, and i see a man's face staring into my car. and he said, you look like you could use some help. >> reporter: the stranger got her car started and drove her to safety. his act of heroism led her to become dr. abigail marsh, a neuroscientist who studies what gets into the heads of heroes. at georgetown univer, has published studies on the brains of two kinds of people, psychopaths, who have no compassion for others, and people who have so much compassion that they donated a kidney to a stranger. she found a striking difference in a pair of tiny structures near the bottom of the brain called the amygdalae. they subconsciously recognize danger and react faster than conscious thought. >> one of the big things that we know they do is they're

responsible for generating the experience of fear. what's interesting about that is that, not only is the amygdalae essential for giving you the experience of fear, it seems to allow you to empathize with other people's fear. >> reporter: as her subjects were scanned, marsh showed them emotional faces. >> and whereas people who are psychopathic show very minimal responses in the amygdala when they see a frightened face, people who have given kidneys to strangers have an exaggerated response in the amygdala, which we think means that they are more sensitive than most people to other's distress, better at interpreting when other people are in distress. more likely to pick up on it. >> reporter: perhaps like the man who saved her on the freeway. no telling how many psychopaths drove past you that night. >> just try to relax and stay as still as possible during the scan. >> reporter: we wondered whether our carnegie heroes were born heroic. >> are you comfortable and ready? >> reporter: was there a difference in their brains? all three volunteered for dr. marsh's scans.

>> to my -- i'm not going to lie, it was -- i was really pleased and gratified by what we found in the heroic rescuers, which is that, just like the altruistic kidney donors, their amygdalas were larger than average and significantly more responsive to the sight of somebody else in distress. which makes so much sense, i mean, you know, these are the people who, when they saw somebody terrified because they thought they were about to die, they didn't just sit there. >> reporter: you know, they have all told us that they sprang into action, as you say, without thinking. >> you don't think, you just -- you're strictly acting. >> i didn't think about it. >> i didn't even think about it. >> it really makes sense when you think about how ancient and deep in our brain structures like the amygdala are. and i wouldn't want to say that the amygdala is where altruism is in the brain. it's one link in a very long chain of events that's happening that takes us from seeing that somebody's in danger to actually acting to help them. but we know that it's definitely an essential link in that chain

whether you are a mouse or a rat or a dog or a human. it's performing the same functions at a really deep, fast, subconscious level. >> reporter: if the act of heroism is a sprint, the consequences are a marathon. for david mccartney, it was for the better. he's the first to admit he wasn't a good man. in the past, he'd pleaded guilty to battery. but he promised the woman he pulled from the burning car that he would do good. and in 2019, he donated a kidney. >> reporter: who did the kidney go to? >> i have no clue. >> reporter: on the other hand, for the terryann thomas, heroism has been troubling. she wasn't able to go back to work in the police property room. >> i had a hard time. i still have a hard time. >> reporter: and it's been a hard time for pete pontzer who was left with regret. that the second boy he could not reach, was flown to a hospital, but he did not survive. >> a hero would have gotten the

second one as well. and that's a challenge that i always live with. i just couldn't get the second kid. >> reporter: his regret was coupled with curiosity about the boy he saved seven years ago. the boy whose name he never knew. the young man that you saved is named sebastian prokop. and we found him. >> okay. >> reporter: and he had something that he wanted to say to you. so let me introduce. >> i'm sebastian prokop. i'm 18. i recently graduated from high school, and i'm working toward going to college, getting a car, all that good stuff. thank you to the one who pulled me out and let me be able to achieve all the milestones that

i've got and that i plan to get. >> thank you, scott. >> reporter: what is it like to see him today? >> it kind of takes my breath away, scott. it helps to bring some closure and some help. >> reporter: help for heroes has been the mission of the carnegie fund for 118 years. it has bestowed 10,000 medals and awarded $40 million. back in 1904, andrew carnegie sensed what science has now confirmed -- heroes, he said, cannot be created. they act on an impulse, a mysterious gift to the few. the psychological cost for some heroes. >> it's toek say, look, i should talk to somebody. >> at 60minutesovertime.com,

sponsored by pfizer. otoek say, should talk to somebody. >> at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by pfizer. katoek say, should talk to somebody. >> at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by pfizer. ytoek say, should talk to somebody. >> at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by pfizer. toek say, should talk to somebody. >> at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by pfizer. toek say, li should talk to somebody. >> at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by pfizer. say, look, should talk to somebody. >> at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by pfizer. omicron variants. [slice] got it?

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for decades now, russians have known the drill. when there's bad news brewing, such as the death of a leader, or a convulsive event, such as the chernobyl disaster, state tv switches its programming and begins airing tchaikovsky's ballet, swan lake. nothing to see here folks. but also note the choice of distraction. ballet is centrally important to russian society. and to russian image. dancers slicing through the air and challenging laws of physics and gravity represent civility and grace. but, last february, when russian military troops invaded ukraine, russian ballet troupes had their western tours cancelled and moscow's bolshoi theater has shuttered shows by directors critical of putin's war. as we first reported last year, this brutal war plays out on the most delicate of fronts, leaving

ballet in exile. when ballet dancers are described as god's athletes, well, you could offer up olga smirnova as supporting evidence. she treads on air, coming in on little cat feet. she's a russian prima ballerina, one of the world's leading dancers. but days after russia invaded ukraine, smirnova pirouetted and stepped off her stage at the renowned bolshoi theater, with dramatic flourish. she took to social media to express her outrage. and then fled the country. the modern day version of nureyev or baryshnikov defecting. >> reporter: when you sat down to write that social media post, what did you want to communicate? what did you want to say? >> i just couldn't keep it inside. i was so ashamed of russia. this is the true. i'm not ashamed that i'm russian, but i'm ashamed because

of russia started this action. >> reporter: i want to read what you wrote. you said you were against this war with every fiber of your being. but i now feel that a line has been drawn that separates the before and the after. >> it's how i felt. 24th of february, this is, was the line. because it's all changed. all changed. the reputation of russia and russian people, even if you are not a soldier, you're just russian. it -- it's all -- it still makes a shadow on you. >> reporter: being russian? >> being russian. and it's -- it's really painful. >> reporter: predictably, smirnova's post went viral. she was, after all, a leading light at moscow's bolshoi

ballet. from the russian word for big, bolshoi is the world's largest ballet company and the most prestigious. the theater is physically close to the kremlin, a short walk away. and also aligned inextricably with the russian government. czars loved the bolshoi. for decades, communist leaders used the bolshoi theater for political stagecraft, holding rallies and giving national addresses there. >> this is something that celebrates russia. every important guest who would visit soviet union would be invited to the bolshoi, see the performance. and that was a pride of russia at any time. >> reporter: alexei ratmansky trained at the bolshoi school and was for a time its artistic director. he was born in russia but grew up in kyiv, where his parents still live. at the time of the invasion, he was in russia, choreographing two ballets. he left the country immediately,

unwilling to continue working in a world so tied to the putin regime. >> as i was going in a taxi to the airport, i felt these two -- sand castles falling apart, behind my back. >> reporter: those sand castles were the work, the work you had done? >> yes, yes, yes. it was an agony. it was very hard day. >> reporter: and, of course, a catastrophic day for ukraine. indiscriminate bombings and missile strikes raining down upon the country, crushing lives and dreams -- not least those of an ascendant ballerina from kyiv, polina chepyk, age 17. you wanted to be a ballerina for years and years. what was it like when suddenly you couldn't -- couldn't go to school, couldn't dance? >> i was shocked. and i'm like -- oh my god. and first about what i'm thinking that i left my point shoes in college. it was my -- >> reporter: that was your first thought? >> yes. >> reporter: and you left your point shoes at school?

>> yes. i left everything actually. >> reporter: war didn't stop her in her footsteps. she resumed dancing at home, using whatever she could as a barre. but after a few days, her parents -- both former dancers, focussed on getting polina out. they called on a famously well-connected figure in the tight knit ballet community, new jersey based larissa saveliev. you're getting this barrage of emails from -- from parents and from dancers. what -- what are they -- what are they telling you? what are they asking you? >> oh, please help -- get us out of here. they're willing to give up everything else, but they have to dance. and the parents were -- you know, it doesn't matter what we do. they have to dance. >> reporter: this was their -- their lifeline almost? >> this is it. they just -- they -- they could not imagine not dance. >> reporter: in the 1990s, she founded youth america grand

prix, a ballet competition and scholarship program, pairing aspiring dancers with ballet schools worldwide. >> well, no, they want to see her for full year, but you have to come for the summer first. >> reporter: now, in humanitarian crisis, she -- and the international ballet community, scrambled to action. saveliev tapped her vast network, relocating more than a hundred young ukrainian dancers to new schools and host families. >> we give each child a number, just to move faster. and we say, okay, number 55 is -- like -- just get a spot in stuttgart. okay. okay. number 54, just get a spot in -- dresden. >> reporter: cross it off the list. >> cross it off the list. >> reporter: when a slot opened for polina, she stuffed leotards and tutus into a suitcase along with a bottle of her mom's perfume, a reminder of home. and then she headed to kyiv's train station. >> and my parents are in the window of train.

they said, good-bye. we love you. everything will be fine. and i was crying. and we were all crying. i was thinking maybe i would need to take my suitcase and go back to my family because my heart was broken really. >> reporter: how did you overcome that? what -- what made you not get off that train? >> because it's open door for me. it's a door for my dream. >> reporter: 17-year-old that she is, polina documented the lonely odyssey on tiktok. trains and buses. five days and 1,200 miles, kyiv to lviv, poland to berlin. finally to amsterdam where she landed at the dutch national ballet academy, one of the leading schools in the world. >> reporter: when you got to the new school and started dancing again, how did that feel? >> oh, i was very happy. yes, i -- my mind changed.

because i was thinking about my parents all the time, for my family, for my sister. and when i go to the ballet class, the -- this world changed for me. i have another world, a world of ballet. >> reporter: her adjustment was made easier when she found other ukrainian dance students who, thanks to larissa saveliev, also found a safe harbor in amsterdam. ♪ polina fell into a routine immediately. on the cusp of a professional career, she prepared for final exams. she was jittery beforehand. she emerged relieved, triumphant, and eager to report back to mom. what did you tell her? >> that i was nervous, but when i start -- you -- i do everything right. >> reporter: if the war has made refugees out of some ukrainian dancers, it's made soldiers out

of others. when the war began, oleksii potiomkin, a principal dancer with ukraine's national ballet, turned in his tights for military fatigues. here he is in downtown lviv, having just returned from duty as a medic. what was your life like before the war? >> before war i must -- i preparing, new premiere ballet, ukrainian ballet. you know, like real, normal life. and just one moment it's, like, changes. but i need to do something. i can't sit just at home in shelter and watch tv, how my friends die and -- everyone do something. >> reporter: what have you seen these last few months? >> everyday it's really scary. they crushed everything. destroyed houses, of civilians people. it's brothers, son, fathers, sisters. >> reporter: while he says he's shaken by what he's seen unfold

on the battlefield, he's also appalled by a war taking place on another front, at the bolshoi. >> like bolshoi now, it's toxic theater. nobody want to work with you. >> reporter: you said toxic? >> toxic, yes. in russia art, it's politics. it's russian government use -- use it -- ballet, it's like weapon. >> reporter: the weapon was deployed at the bolshoi as recently as this past april when the theater revived a production of spartacus in support of the russian military invasion, unnerving many in the dance world, including longtime head of the dutch national ballet, ted brandsen. >> well, it was a very clear support our boys who are on a military operation to save ukraine from the fascists, which is a totally ridiculous concept, of course. >> reporter: allegory,

spartacus, about the -- the slave revolt, is -- is somehow being coopted by -- >> yeah. >> reporter: the aggressive superpower? >> absolutely. now it's not -- it's not -- it's not for nothing that this became one of the signature ballets of the soviet -- of the soviet >> reporter: abroad, the ballet community has staged benefit concerts to raise funds for ukraine, while russia's famed companies, the bolshoi and st. petersburg's mariinsky, have had their touring dates cancelled. >> i think you need to be a little bit more active with your arms. >> reporter: with the iron curtain down, artists have to pick a side. alexei ratmansky left moscow for american ballet theater in new york, where he is artist in residence, and where we spoke with him remotely this past april. it sounds like you -- you don't buy this idea that, look, individuals shouldn't bear the responsibility for -- for the acts of the state? that artists should be just artists. >> no, i don't think the artists are separate from politics. and besides, it's not -- for me

it's not politics. it's about humanity. it's about responding to war crimes, responding to the crimes of your government, of your president. it just made things clear which things are important and which aren't. and you make a choice. you decide where you want to belong. >> reporter: for olga smirnova, that choice came together in a matter of days after she condemned the war. she left russia and landed on her feet, at the dutch national opera in amsterdam, just around the corner from polina's school. it must have been incredibly difficult to leave the bolshoi. >> if you make a choice, you have consequences. but, this is how it works. i had to leave everything. like my home, my theater, my repertoire, my partners, my

parents, my sister, brother, everything. but i don't have regrets. >> reporter: no regrets? >> no, because at least i can be honest with myself. >> reporter: american philanthropist howard buffett, son of warren buffett, watched our story when it was first broadcast last year. his foundation granted more than a million dollars to help support the exiled ukrainian dancers. ♪ ♪ you don't have to wait until retirement to start enjoying your plans. with pacific life... ...imagine your future with confidence. for more than 150 years... we've kept our promise to financially protect and provide. so, you can look forward to exploring your family's heritage with the ones you love. talk to a financial professional about life insurance and retirement solutions

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in a world of skiing, there are two kinds of skiers, those who like to stay on the groomed

runs and be guided gently around obstacles and those who like to ski the whole mountain and ski towards the obstacles. that is called freeriding. man made jumps, rails and half pipes are rejected in favor of the drops, jagged cliffs and deep chutes created by mother nature. as sharyn alfonsi first reported last march, even among that group, 15-year-old jacob smith stands out. we thought you should see what he does because he cannot. >> reporter: this is big sky, montana, home to some of the steepest and most challenging ski slopes in the country. and that is jacob smith, who is blind. three years ago he was just 12 years old as he made his way to the top of the 11,000.

foot high lone peak to ski down it. watch this. >> dropping in three, two, one. >> reporter: jacob drops into the big coulier, a narrow rock walled 1400 foot chute. that dot is him, making his way turn by turn. a wrong move can be catastrophic. the run has a 50-degree slope, which means if you slip down the coulier, there's little chance you can stop yourself. >> when your standing at the top, you feel like if you move, you're going to die. >> reporter: and that's the moment most people would say, you know what, maybe not a good idea. >> yeah. but i'm kind of like, well, i'm already up here. i have to make it down somehow. >> reporter: he did and became the only legally blind athlete to ski the legendary run. >> you did it. >> that was awesome. >> history just has been made. >> forever. >> reporter: how did you feel when you made it to the bottom? >> excited that i did it. i didn't crash, that was awesome. i made it four more times.

so i just wanted to do it again. >> reporter: you were testing your luck that day. >> yeah. >> we have jacob smith on course. >> reporter: jacob is still testing his luck and good sense. we met him in january at a junior regional freeride tournament in big sky. that's him, now 15 years old, competing against 40 other teenage daredevils all of whom can see perfectly well. >> coming right off the top of that. finding pretty good landing. >> reporter: this time the background for all the competitor's spectacular experiment with gravity was another triple diamond chute, appropriately named dtm. dtm stands for -- >> don't tell momma. >> reporter: it's an insane run, like a 45 degree slope. >> yeah. >> reporter: did the judges give you any slack for being blind? >> no, zero. >> reporter: do you think they should? >> no, i don't. i want to be treated normal so i can compete witightifdi.

we worked with his doctors and our graphic artist to show roughly what jacob can see on a run. he has extreme tunnel vision and no depth perception on top of that. it's blurry. his visual acuity is rated 20/800, four times the level of legal blindness. think of the big e on the eye chart, he would need it to be blown up four times in order to see it from 20 feet away. >> fantastic ski technique. you wouldn't be able to tell he's visually impaired. >> reporter: so how does jacob ski like this? his family keeps him on course. >> go up with your right ski really far. >> reporter: on competition days, his little brother preston patiently helps him hike to the top of the venue. it's so high, the lifts won't take you there. >> first down, down, perfect. perfect. keep going. >> reporter: then his father

nathan helps him get down. >> nice turns. nice turns. >> reporter: jacob has a two-way radio turned up high in his pocket. his dad is on the other end at the base somehow calmly guiding him down. okay. right, right, right. >> it's on me so i don't let him down that i get him in trouble. i have to guide him through narrow chutes or not go off a cliff. >> reporter: you have to be his eyes. >> yeah. >> reporter: and there can't be a delay. he can't say are you sure, dad. >> hope. >> reporter: have you ever missed it? i didn't see that? i forgot to tell him about that? >> oh, yeah. all the time. his adaptation is pretty amazing. >> reporter: how much do you trust him? >> enough to turn right when he tells me to. >> jacob is putting his all into my dad's voice. it's crazy. skiing just listening to someone turn there, turn there. >> reporter: could you see like that? >> it's like closing your eyes basically. it would be so hard. >> reporter: jacob's siblings are all competitive skiers. that's andrew, who is 17. doing a 360.

preston is 14 and julia is 12. do the other competitors know he's blind? >> some do. they always announce it over the intercom that blind skier, jacob, coming down the hill. >> he is the only-ever blind skier. >> that's when everyone turns and looks. oh, it's a miracle. look at him. >> reporter: would you know if you didn't know? >> he's such a good skier for legally blind. everybody is -- >> they get mad at him if he's in the way. >> if we tell anybody that he's legally blind. nobody believes us. they give us a bad look. >> reporter: jacob was born with vision. soon after he learned to walk, he was on skis. family vacations were spent bombing down the trails in big sky with his family. but it was back home at their ranch in north dakota that an unexpected obstacle changed jacob's life. he started getting headaches and began bumping into things. he was 8 years old. >> i like ran into a wall or

something. and my mom saw it. two days after i went to the eye doctor. and they took one look at my eyes, looked at my mom and just asked which hospital do you want? because my optic nerve was swelling and bleeding. >> reporter: did you have a sense that things were going wrong up until that point? >> no. >> reporter: that day jacob was flown here, to the masonic . children's hospital in minneapolis, where he underwent an emergency 12-hour surgery after an mri revealed a cancerous brain tumor the size of a softball that was crushing his optic nerve. >> scariest thing i have ever seen in my life. it looked like half his brain was a tumor. >> so at that point you're not thinking i'm worried he's going to lose his vision, you're thinking -- >> i'm going to lose my child. >> reporter: you're going to lose your child. >> i'm going to bury a kid. >> reporter: in that first surgery, doctors removed enough of the tumor to relieve the pressure on jacob's optic nerve, to stop his vision from

continuing to deteriorate. here he is leaving a message for siblings a few days later. >> i miss you all a lot. i really, really do. getting my vision is getting better. i'm coming home and i'm really excited. >> reporter: but jacob would need three more major brain surgeries over the next three years, all before he was 12 years old. >> my head feels okay. >> reporter: each time with an extensive rehabilitation. did you ever get down about it? >> like i did, but at the same time, i was just prayed a lot. >> reporter: when you were praying act it, were you praying this will be over? were you praying i want to get my vision back? or were you praying stay alive? >> that i'll stay alive and that i'll get through it. that's what happened. >> reporter: finally, in 2017, a

course of radiation eradicated the cancer and jacob got a clean scan. but his doctors said the radiation increased his life time risk of another brain tumor by up to 30%. >> right now the tumor that we originally targeted is gone. so far so good. >> reporter: doesn't sound like you've exhaled. >> i don't think you ever exhale. >> reporter: because -- >> because there's always the what-if. when you get into that situation that you never felt you should have been or expected, i don't think you're ever going to exhale and go, we're done. >> reporter: whose idea was it to return to skiing? >> well, my dad's. >> turn and go straight through. >> so we came out here and we kind of just tried it out. everywhere i went skiing for probably the first year or two was with either my dad or a coach. >> reporter: you've taught your kids to see, but you never

taught a blind child to ski. >> no. >> reporter: you did not know what you were doing? >> no. >> reporter: tell me about the early days. >> at first everyone said rope and sign and he'll be a blind skier. you'll guide him. that's not an option. we're not going do it that way. >> reporter: because why? >> i'm not going to let that define him. >> reporter: father and son admit they're trying to carve their own path, sort of figuring it out as they go. jacob says he's learned to listen for danger, other skiers, the churning of a lift or icy conditions underfoot. and he says he remembers many of the runs from when he could see. can you feel your way down a run you didn't go on before you lost your vision? >> i mean, yeah, i can. and i've done it. >> reporter: how does it work out? >> pretty scary and sometimes takes me a little minute. >> reporter: that's got to be terrifying? >> you get used to it.

>> reporter: how much crashes were there in those early days? >> i don't think i can count that high. >> reporter: when jacob was 10, he shattered his femur in 60 places when he tee skoied into tree. are you not nervous that there will be a catastrophic accident that he could die doing this. >> not the way i vision life. i don't look for the reasons not to do things. i'm not going to put him through something that i'm not going through first that the consequences of falling are not going to be life threatening. >> reporter: what are you fearful of? >> the only big fear i have is not succeeding. >> reporter: you're more afraid of not succeeding than you are of getting hurt? >> yes. >> reporter: why is that? >> because i've already lost my vision, so a couple broken bones and a couple more mishaps i guess isn't a big deal to me at all. >> reporter: clearly he's fearless. as a parent, are you not fearful? >> he's not reckless. he knows his limitations.

i think he has the ability to ski anything on the mountain, but he's not going to try to do it by himself. he wants to be with somebody. he wants to trust. he won't ski with people he doesn't trust. >> reporter: nathan said jacob is cautious about skiing and competing on low visibility days, when he can see even less than usual. still he finds a way of keeping up with his siblings. they are an enviable pack on the mountain. do you see him being super plugged into everything else, right, to the sounds. he said he hears the lift, the snow. >> yeah. >> reporter: what do you see? >> his hearing is very -- he chooses what he wants to hear. >> reporter: what do you mean? >> there's times at home where he'll be -- you could say his name 1,000 times and he'll pretend like he didn't hear one word. but then skiing, it's like you could flick and he'll just turn, you know. >> reporter: on competition day, jacob suits up and sends it.

>> drop in three, two, one. >> reporter: finishing 19th out of 41 competitors. for jacob, success isn't about the trophy. it's about freedom. showing others how to negotiate obstacles even when you can't see them coming. >> coming to the finish line. there you go. >> honestly, no matter what's get thrown in front of you, what kind of comes out of nowhere and strikes you, takes you off guard a little bit, there is always a way to conquer it, to apo make it happen. and still do what you want to do. cbs sports hq is presented by progressive insurance. i'm james brown with the scores from the afc playoff bracket. the afc championship is all set and the rematch will happen. after brutally beating the bills, burrow and the bangles

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>> announcer: "the last minute" of "60 minutes" is sponsored by united healthcare. get medicare with more. one downside of a career in journalism, is how fast it can transform an eternal optimist into a chronic cynic. so much energy and airtime is expended reporting about

criminals, charlatans, disasters and idols with feet of clay that there's little room left for stories of inspiration. finding and sharing stories, such as the three we reported tonight, is one rewarding aspect of working here at "60 minutes." stories of renewal, of hope, and of virtue are to be had among the many tales of crime, corruption and global doom. tales of inspiration are stories, too. and it doesn't hurt to report them. not only can they inspire the viewer, but they also help keep the cynic and the reporter at bay. at least for a while. i'm jon wertheim. we'll be back in two weeks with a brand new edition of "60 minutes." when it was time to sign up for a medicare plan... mom didn't know which way to turn. but thanks to the right plan promise from unitedhealthcare she got a medicare plan expert to help guide her to the right plan with the right care team behind her. ♪ wow, uh-huh.♪ and for her, it's a medicare plan with the aarp name.

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that cloud looks like a banana, eating a banana. whoa. bananabalism. (laughing) uh, flower, is that a bear? oh, that one does look like a bear. good call, ira. no. i mean right there. (growling) hey, mr. bear. how are you today? mm. she is not long for this world. thor happy for bear. eat well tonight. what's that? oh, you want a hug? i don't think that's what he's saying, flower! (bear growling, flower screaming) (ira screams) (bear growling) (claws ripping) (thor clears throat) ♪ ♪

and she's staying.