6-year-old recovering from heart surgery gets special Texas Longhorns pep talk
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Hector Rodriguez sits quietly in his hospital room at Dell Children’s Medical Center. He’s tossing his lucky baseball from one hand to the other. It’s covered with the No. 27 and Houston Astros José Altuve’s name.
The 6-year-old keeps warm under his burnt-orange, Texas Longhorn blanket. His mom says he loves baseball.
“It’s just one thing that he loves and keeps him going,” Elena Rodriguez said. “Keeps him strong.”
Hector’s face lights up when he talks about the Longhorns and Astros. “Horns up,” said the young Rodriguez smiling “Hook’em Horns.”
On Monday, Hector had heart surgery, his fifth one. It was to repair an undetected heart condition which he was born with and included two holes in his heart. This time, Hector had the whole UT Baseball team behind him.
“This guy is an absolute machine. He’s a warrior,” said Texas Longhorns baseball coach David Pierce as he introduced Hector to the team just days before his surgery.
“Why do you play baseball,” Pierce asked Hector. His response “I’m good at it!”
Hector not only got a pep talk from Coach Pierce, but took a few swings on the field and ran the bases. The team tweeted a video after his visit.
“We are going to be there for you forever. You’ll always be in our hearts,” said Pierce “You’ll always be apart of the Longhorn family.”
Hector’s doctors are hopeful this is his last surgery. His medical team is part of The Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease.
The program is now a game changer for families like the Rodriguez’ — before they would have had to go to Houston or Dallas.
“When we opened the program here…we anticipated performing a certain number of operations. We performed way more surgeries in the past year than we expected to be doing,” explained cardiothoracic heart surgeon Dr. Ziv Beckerman.
The program has been accepting patients for more than a year now. The team is in the process of expanding and recruiting from around the country.
The Rodriguez’ say the support has been incredible.
“They’re like cheerleading him as he’s doing therapy down the hallway,” says mom Elena.
Hector was able to go home Friday just days after his surgery. He will sit out baseball until he’s fully recovered. He says he’ll be ready for the spring season.