Help Brett's Little Make A Wish: Lions Game at Ford Field

Most of you know Brett’s story but for those of you that do not, I’ll type it all here.

Brett was born with congenital heart disease, it was discovered at 9 months old that he had aortic stenosis and a bicuspid aortic valve. What that means is his aortic valve only has two leaflets in it while everyone else is born with three. Your aortic valve is supposed to open, let blood in, and close, holding the blood in. Brett’s unfortunately didn’t close completely and leaked the blood back out of the heart. So that in turn made his heart work harder than what is normal for the rest of us, and what happens when you work any muscle harder, it gets bigger. So his heart was getting thicker and the valve leaking more and more all while also fusing more. The plan was always to do surgery once he’s a grown adult because if we did it before he was done growing then he’d outgrow the valve and need surgery again soon after. Unfortunately, when he was 15 his valve was leaking so severely and had fused to just one leaflet, that we couldn’t wait any longer. He had what was called the Ross procedure done. That is where they cut out the bad aortic valve and put Brett’s own pulmonary valve there in its place and then they put a prosthetic valve where his pulmonary was.

On another note, Brett is and always has been a sports lover. Especially football. He is a die hard Detroit Lions fan and a Michigan Wolverines fan. He also loves Detroit Tigers baseball, but, because of his heart, Brett wasn’t allowed to play sports, and never will be able to unfortunately. But, Brett knows stats and plays like no one else I know. He can tell you stats about every player, past, present, his favorite team or not, he knows stats, the kid is a walking sports book.

Back to his heart, he finally had his procedure August 30, 2023 and was told he can start doing things he’s never been able to, like lifting weights! He did that for a few months until his 1 year follow up and we received pretty devastating news. While his prosthetic valve is doing great, his pulmonary valve is leaking. Enough to the point that the doctor can hear it through the stethoscope already. Now, Brett is back to full restrictions and on a watch and wait basis. Back to square one, like surgery never even happened and that is mentally horrible to the kid that just wanted to be able to be a normal kid finally. As his mom, my heart is shattered. We did everything we were supposed to do, followed all the rules, finally had the surgery, and it just didn’t work. I cannot imagine how Brett feels as a 16 year old boy. ❤️‍

After talking with his doctor, dad, and so many family and friends we want to give Brett his own little make a wish dream come true!!!!

Brett’s never been to Ford Field to see a home game of the Lions and we want to get him there!!

Monday night, September 30th, the Lions play the Seattle Seahawks and our goal is to raise enough money to get Brett to that game.

We have a few family and friends trying to help hook him up with some extra fun things to do while there while we try to get the funds to get tickets to fly there and a hotel. Brett has many siblings and nothing has ever been revolved around just him as something fun to do for Brett so dad and mom want to bring him to Ford Field and make it the vacation of his life!

If you have any tips, any ideas or thoughts of things to do while there please, we’re all ears!!

#LetsGetBrettToFordField