MUSCATINE COUNTY, Iowa — At the Iowa Hawkeyes’ next home football game against Nebraska on Friday, Nov. 29, Muscatine native Lukas Hazen will be Kid Captain.
Born early at 34 weeks, Hazen's parents, Josh and Jayme, were warned he possibly wouldn’t survive childbirth after prenatal ultrasounds detected multiple brain bleeds.
Shortly after birth, Hazen was flown by an AirCare team to the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children's Hospital. Lukas was diagnosed with neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia, a rare condition affecting pregnancy.
Hazen was discharged five weeks after his birth. Since then, he’s returned to children’s hospitals for routine checkups. He’s since developed cerebral palsy and is now using a wheelchair with assistive devices for communication. That hasn’t affected his love for swimming, music, and art, nor will it stop him on the field on Friday, where he’ll represent as the final featured member of 2024’s Kid Captain class.
Kid Captain began as a partnership between the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital and the Iowa Hawkeyes fifteen years ago. It’s a program celebrating the stories of pediatric patients. This year’s participants were chosen from over 200 nominations from three states (Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska).
