Lincoln Veach can usually be found outside. Growing up in the small town of Andrew, Iowa, the 5-year-old rides around in his go-kart and four-wheeler plays on the swing set in the backyard, and dashes around the gridiron in his flag football league. 

After spending 112 days at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, Veach got the chance to take the field of Kinnick Stadium at Iowa football’s annual Kids’ Day at Kinnick in August. 

And on Saturday, he will be the Kid Captain for the Hawkeyes’ game against the Northwestern Wildcats. 

According to Veach’s mother, Courtney, he had lived a healthy life until around his fourth birthday, when he developed an ear infection that didn’t improve with antibiotics. Then his stomach became distended, which occurs when the spleen and liver increase in size. An X-ray and blood tests from Veach’s primary care doctor showed signs of leukemia, a blood cancer. 

“I could just tell when [the doctor] came into the room, the kind of look on her face, that things weren’t good,” Courtney remembered. “I was certainly in shock. That was not anything I was expecting to hear from her on that day.”

These tests were confirmed on Oct. 20, 2021, when Veach was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a disease that targets white blood cells in bone marrow and replaces these cells with leukemia cells, weakening the body’s immune system. 

About two weeks after his diagnosis, Lincoln’s condition became worse. Courtney said he was spiking fevers and became septic. As a result, he was transferred to the pediatric ICU at UIHC, where he was intubated for 50 days and underwent 11 surgeries. Over that time, Veach experienced severe pain in his right leg and was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a sometimes fatal bacterial infection that eats away at flesh. 

To treat the fasciitis, Courtney and her husband, Joe, had to make a choice between keeping Veach on antibiotics or opting for surgery, which at the time, involved amputation of the right leg. Questioning if the amputation was the correct option, Veach’s parents expressed their concerns to plastic surgeon Mark Fisher. 

After further consideration, doctors elected to avoid amputation and instead opted for a skin graft, which involved moving the skin from Veach’s left leg to cover the damaged areas on his right leg. During the whole process, Courtney said her son was bedridden for 50 days. 

UIHC hematologist-oncologist David Dickens has worked with Veach since the option of amputation was discussed. He has prescribed Veach chemotherapy and other care. For Dickens, the choice for a skin graft was a “judgment call” that required collaboration with family and medical workers. 

“At one point it wasn’t clear that he would survive, and his family knew it,” he wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan. “I saw a boy and his family fight two battles simultaneously.” 

Courtney said when Veach was discharged from the pediatric ICU, he spent 60 days on the oncology floor of the hospital partaking in physical therapy, as he had to “relearn” motor skills such as walking, sitting up, and holding objects. Veach’s mother said it was “very scary” for him to walk for the first time in months but maintained her son’s determination never wavered. 

“There were definitely times that were frustrating because he couldn’t do the things he wanted to do, but he continues to work hard every day, getting stronger and stronger,” she said. 

According to his mother, Veach was discharged from the hospital on Feb. 8, 2022. But even while at home, the boy’s condition didn’t improve right away, as he faced nausea and malnutrition in the first few weeks out of the hospital. These side effects were later determined to be a reaction to the steroids Veach took for treatment. 

Even though he still had a few inpatient stays with fevers after he was discharged, Veach spent most of his time receiving care from home, as Courtney is a nurse and assists with her son’s IV antibiotic. 

While at home, Veach’s condition and mobility improved over time. In an interview with UI Health Care, Beach’s father said his son was in a wheelchair to start 2022, but in a matter of months, is now running around and even jumping on the trampoline. 

For a school project, Veach was assigned to describe himself in one word: strong. 

“He’s got scars everywhere from all his surgeries, but it doesn’t bother him,” Courtney said. “It’s just a part of him and who he is. He’s a go-getter.”