MAQUOKETA, Iowa — The Iowa Hawkeyes football team has a tradition of naming a "Kid Captain" to join the team at each game throughout the season. Lincoln Veach, of Maquoketa, has been named Captain for the Nov. 4 game versus Northwestern at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
Lincoln is an energetic 6-year-old who loves to smile.
"I would describe him as a very energetic kid, loves the outdoors, loves doing anything outdoors. He's very determined and doesn't let anything stop him. Just kind of has a very contagious personality. Just always smiling," Lincoln's mom Courtney Veach said.
A few years ago, Courtney noticed a change in her son's health.
"He had been diagnosed with an ear infection that was just not getting better. I noticed his stomach was very big and distended. So I called back up to his primary care provider," Courtney said.
Lincoln would undergo multiple tests and exams. Doctors discovered that then-4-year-old Lincoln had leukemia.
"I knew he was not feeling well, and things were improving, you know, that was certainly not the news that I was expecting to get. Just lots of emotions, very overwhelming," Courtney said.
The diagnosis hit the family hard, not knowing where the road ahead would take them. But it didn't stop the family from creating a game plan.
The family turned to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, where Lincoln would receive treatment, including chemotherapy.
"After a two-week course of chemotherapy, most kids start to feel better, which was not the case for Lincoln," Courtney said. His treatment was not going as well as the doctors had hoped. "He was spiking fevers, started having a lot of pain, and that right leg (he) couldn't walk on it anymore."
Lincoln battled in the hospital for 50 days. During that time, he had 11 surgeries.
"Then he had an infection called necrotizing fasciitis, which attacks all of the healthy tissue in the body... If you're not able to treat it or remove it, it's fatal, people die from it," Courtney said.
Lincoln came close to having to have his right leg amputated but gave his doctors and family a glimmer of hope. "One day, we started seeing some movement in his toes, which gave us some hope that that leg was viable," Courtney said.
Chemotherapy continued, along with physical therapy and treatment of his legs. After 112 long days in the Children's Hospital, Lincoln was able to go home.
Two years later, Lincoln can do the things he loves, especially playing at the playground with his siblings. He continues to do physical therapy three days a week to strengthen his right leg.
"(We're) certainly in a much better place now than we were a year ago. It's amazing to look back and kind of see that journey from then til now," Courtney said.
Lincoln's journey is one that Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz commented on during his weekly press conference this past Tuesday, Oct. 31.
"(He is an) amazingly tough young guy. And we'll be thinking about him and his family this week when we travel over to Chicago," Ferentz said.
The Veach family plans to travel to Wrigley Field in Chicago for the game, where Lincoln will proudly serve as Kid Captain and will cheer on the Hawkeyes.