A week ago, John Kucko was looking forward to the wedding of his younger daughter, Caroline, 25.
Two days later, like a bolt out of the blue, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
This week, he’ll undergo more tests at the University of Rochester Medical Center and sometime after that, surgery.
“I have great faith in our community and Strong (Memorial Hospital), and I am going to do everything I can to get better,” he said by phone June 1.
Startling health news
Three years ago, Kucko closed out a long, legendary career in local broadcasting as a sports reporter and sports and news anchor, having worked at Channel 13 from 1989 to 1991 and WROC-TV (Channel 8) from 1991 to 2023.
The Binghamton native then turned his full attention to his digital photography and video business, John Kucko Digital, which chronicles the natural world and has hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook. That’s where, on May 28, he shared the startling news about his health.
The 61-year-old explained that early on May 26, after capturing images of “one of the most beautiful rainbows I’ve ever seen at Letchworth State Park, I left home for the Rochester area. And in the blink of an eye, my life changed.”
While on I-390 North in Henrietta, Kucko had a seizure, which led to a crash.
The single-car wreck left him with fractured ribs and a bruised left shoulder, but he was otherwise OK, and no bystanders were hurt, “Thank God,” he said.
However, within 24 hours, CT scans at URMC revealed the cause of the seizure: a tumor in an area of the brain that controls speech.
Subtle signs of trouble
The seizure was a shocking first.
But in April, Kucko had experienced a strange, subtle symptom that, with the benefit of hindsight, suggested a problem. He was escorting a group of people on a tour of Sicily through DePrez Travel Partners. And while waiting to board a plane in Rochester for the first leg of the journey, “I was talking with somebody — not part of my group — and all of the sudden I couldn’t talk,” he said. “That’s never happened to me before.”
He knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn’t say it. However, the lapse was momentary, and, “It was hot inside the airport. We all agreed it was very hot,” he said. So, he chalked it up to that.
Then on Memorial Day, while shooting images at a vintage car show, Kucko briefly found himself grasping for words again. “It was nothing like at the airport, but it was odd,” he said.
The next day at Letchworth, “I was fine,” he said. “Everything was fine — until I wasn’t. And then I just don’t remember. I got into a seizure-type situation, and everything blacked out.”
Before the crash
At some point during the drive home, Kucko called daughter Caroline, who could tell that something was wrong with her dad. Caroline called her sister, Natalie Kucko, 30, a Channel 8 news anchor, and together they helped officers pinpoint the location of John Kucko’s vehicle, which went off the highway and crashed.
There was a brief moment when Kucko could feel himself helplessly going down an embankment. “I knew the windshield was cracking, and I was going down somewhere into a green area,” he said. “Then I faded out again. I did not feel hurt.”
He has only a vague memory of being extricated from his car and no memory of being in the Strong Emergency Department. He woke up in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, surrounded by his daughters and his wife, Charla.
‘Absolutely not. Guys, we can’t do this.’
The seizure and accident happened just four days before Caroline was to wed her high school sweetheart at a venue in Varysburg, Wyoming County.
“She was like, ‘We have to postpone.’ I was like, ‘Absolutely not. Guys, we can’t do this. Father knows best,’” Kucko said with a laugh, “and it worked out.”
He was released from the hospital May 28, and with his doctors’ permission — and medication to control his symptoms — was able to participate in the May 30 wedding. “We had a wonderful, wonderful day,” he said.
The Kucko family danced together to “Rainbow,” by Kacey Musgraves. And John and Caroline’s father-daughter dance was to John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” a song Kucko has used in multiple video reels.
A spiritual sign
Charla Kucko is a very spiritual person, said John, who met his future wife when both of them worked at Channel 13.
“She’s a Mercy girl,” he said, referring to the all-girls Catholic school, her alma mater. “She always has a Rosary in my car as a safe haven for me when I’m out doing my thing.”
On May 26, it was tucked into the console under the radio. Later, when a family member went to retrieve Kucko’s belongings from the car, she found it on the driver’s seat.
“I’m 100% convinced that I was saved that morning,” he said.
And he’s grateful.
“I’ve got a little bit of a road ahead of me,” he said. “I probably won’t be able to drive for a year. But I’ve always been blessed. I go out every day, but when I’m taking pictures, I’m not just running from place to place. I don’t take for granted the beauty we have. Wherever you go, you have to look and see what you have in front of you.”
Send story tips to reporter Marcia Greenwood at mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on X @MarciaGreenwood.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Former broadcaster, Binghamton native John Kucko diagnosed with brain tumor
Reporting by Marcia Greenwood, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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