A 6-year-old Maquoketa boy is this week’s Kid Captain for the Hawkeyes.

Lincoln Veach spent 112 days at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital in Iowa City. Our Quad Cities News photojournalist Mike Colón talked with his mom about Lincoln’s journey.

His mother, Courtney Veach, said her son had been diagnosed with an ear infection that wasn’t getting any better. Finally, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and the family was referred to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

“Normal colds and viruses that, you know, most people get, we fight them pretty easily,” his mother said. “We recover quickly, but for him, because of some of his medications, it can hit him a lot harder.”

Right before Kids Day at Kinnick, he got sick and developed a fever, so he was hospitalized at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

The doctors and staff were amazing, she said. “We were discharged from the hospital 15 minutes before Kids Day so, yes, he had a big incentive to keep doing everything they were asking him so he could go and enjoy the day.”

“It was just such an amazing culture there,” Courtney Veach said. “The big football players come in and they’re awesome with all of the kids.  If you’re unfortunately in that situation and you know you have to be somewhere, it was an amazing place to be.”

Find out more about Lincoln here.

The Iowa Hawkeyes will play Northwestern on Saturday at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

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