Three-year-old Liam Young is so fascinated by cars, trucks, and anything with wheels that a stranger on Facebook noticed. He created a social-media hashtag that can be found by searching #PullingForLiam on Facebook; an effort made to get his mind off hospital visits.

Liam is the Kid Captain for the Iowa-Rutgers football game this weekend — part of a program that highlights a different story each week about a pediatric patient at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital.

Liam has spent the past year of his life in and out of Iowa City. Living in Cuba City, Wisconsin, he and his family travel two hours by car biweekly to the Children’s Hospital for treatments and doctor’s appointments.

Now, those visits are much less than they once were.

In October 2015, Liam spent long days of isolated testing after being helicoptered to the hospital from a local emergency care unit.

He had felt sick for a couple of days, and his father took him in on a Saturday. After finding out the situation was serious, Liam’s parents struggled and often thought they should have taken him in sooner, but doctors assured them that his symptoms wouldn’t look as suspicious had they done so.

“Everything just kind of worked out in our favor for that, that they told us had we taken him sooner, they would have sent us home and basically told us he’d fight it off,” Liam’s mother, Angee Young said. “I feel that had he not been in Iowa City when he crashed and coded [going into cardiac arrest], it wouldn’t have had the same results… As crappy as the whole entire situation was, everything was timed perfectly.”

After 10 days of testing and uncertainty, his fingers and toes became discolored and started to blister. Doctors then diagnosed Liam with septicemia, an infection that happens when bacteria in

another part of the body enters the bloodstream.

Because of this, his body stopped the circulation in his fingers and toes, and doctors had to amputate most of them.

The disease shut down some of Liam’s organs, and he had to be inpatient for three months while getting treatment.

After being officially discharged after last Christmas, Liam still had to make frequent visits to the Burn Clinic at the UI hospitals for scar healing and other appointments.

There, he met nurse Bridget Werling, whom Liam nicknamed “Aunt Bridget.”

Before treatments or procedures, Werling said Liam lights up the room by singing songs. His all-time favorite: “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon.

Werling said Liam has a silly, giggly, and fun personality, and she says that positivity to his parents.

“I’ll never forget the first time… we let him have his hands open [without bandages], and he started using utensils,” Werling said. “His personality is just; it comes natural for him. It’s not something he’s tried to do, it’s just nothing holds him back. Nothing keeps him down. He’s going to try everything you ask him to.”

His mother said he acts the same when it comes to relearning everyday things at home.

“There’s times where he’ll drop something and he’ll say, ‘I’m sorry it’s my fault, I don’t have fingers,’” Angee Young said. “But for the most part, ever since the beginning when we came home, we’ve been pushing him to do things on his own, like feeding himself.

“We taught him how to use a spoon again, how to hold a cup again. He’s got it, he can do it. But sometimes when it takes a little big longer, it’s a little bit harder and he does get frustrated. But if he’s working on it, and once he accomplishes it, he is so proud of himself and you can see it in his eyes, like ‘I did it.’ Then, the next time he does it, it’s no big deal.”

Doctors and nurses encouraged Liam’s parents to sign him up for the Kid Captain program. He’s a fighter and inspiration, as described by caregivers, and that is what the program highlights.

Growing up in Wisconsin, Liam has some University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger fans in the family. Angee Young says “it’s a house divided.”

Since the family has been spending a lot of time at the UI hospital, however, things are starting to change.

“Slowly but surely we’re getting everyone to convert over to a Hawkeye fan,” Angee Young said. “Like, we got grandma [a Badger fan] to buy a Hawkeye shirt. That was a big thing, you know, they were born and raised in Wisconsin.”

When Liam is at home, he likes to spend his time just like any other three-year-old. His three other siblings – Noah, 6; Libby, 2; and Harrison, 3 months – keep him busy by playing.

His favorite animal is a giraffe, he said, and he got to see some recently.

“We went to the zoo a couple weeks ago,” Liam Young said.

To help Liam get around, he uses a wheelchair he is borrowing from a physical therapist. But the family plans on getting him one of his own, to help with longer distances as he gets used to his prosthetics in the future.