Before we dive into the big game day festivities, let’s take a look back at precious Griffin and his family’s sensational story.
About halfway through Griffin’s mom’s, Kalynn, pregnancy, doctors suspected her unborn child, Griffin, may have kidney and/or heart issues. By 27 weeks, doctors discovered Tetralogy of Fallot – a rare condition caused by a combination of four heart defects – which they said meant her child had a 99.9% chance of also having Down Syndrome.
Eight days after Kalynn gave birth to her beautiful baby boy and close monitoring, Griffin was allowed to go home from the hospital with dad, Dylan, and brother Tucker. Shortly after, at only 4-weeks-old, a tiny Griffin was scheduled for open-heart surgery. However, Griffin coded before the surgery.
Kaylynn and Dylan painstakingly waited in another room while the medical team tried to save Griffin’s life for over an hour. Finally, a nurse finally came in to report that they had performed CPR for 45 minutes before placing Griffin on a life support machine. During that time, they had opened his chest and cracked his ribs to save his life. He weighed only 8 pounds. Griffin remained on life support for 5 days before doctors said heart surgery was his only chance of survival. However, Griffin started having seizures every few minutes which meant surgery was no longer a safe option.
An incredible surgeon named Dr. Subi came up with a last-chance procedure to try to save Griffin’s life. Kalynn and Dylan felt like they had no other choice and decided to bravely go for it, and Griffin was taken in for surgery. Thankfully, the surgery was successful! After six grueling months of being in and out of the hospital, Griffin’s strength began to grow. Now this beautiful boy sees his cardiologist only once a year.
More surgeries will be required in the future, but for now, he’s enjoying being a smiley, happy, joyful, 5-year-old boy.
Griffin’s 7-year-old brother, Tucker, is his hero. In fact, when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he said he wanted to be just like his brother! This incredible duo’s favorite thing is kicking a soccer ball together!
This incredible story inspired our gracious and talented friends at Atlanta United to create a once-in-a-life-time game day experience tailor made for the deserving Stowe family!
On Saturday, June 15th, Griffin’s dreams came true when the Atlanta United took on the Houston Dynamo!!
To start the evening, Griffin’s soccer-loving family was able to play on the field before the match got underway. How many people can say that?!
While playing on the field, Gregory Garza (former player of Atlanta United) joined Griffin to kick the ball around, score some goals, and hang out on the sidelines during warmups. They were instant best friends!
That’s not all, Griffin’s family got to shake some of the players hands prior to the game, including a big high five from Brad Guzan (Atlanta United Goalkeeper) to Griffin!
Griffin and Tucker were also named honorary captains for the evening and got to lead the Atlanta United players out onto the field!
Griffin and his sweet family were seated in the Arthur Blank Suite within Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It truly doesn’t get more VIP than the owner’s suite! They even got to witness 2 GOOAALLSSS from their seats.
You may have seen sweet Tucker and Griffin leading the fans in the ATL Clap!!
At the end of the game, Tucker handed off the Golden Spike to Luke Brennan (Atlanta United’s Winger)! It was a priceless moment!!
A huge thank you to Atlanta United and their incredible team for dreaming up the most perfect evening for the Stowe family!! They made sure every little detail was tailored to Griffin!
Another huge thank you to our friends at ThirdEye Creative Productions for making this evening over-the-top by spoiling Griffin and his family with a very generous gift card to go crazy at the souvenir shops! They also treated them to an evening at the Signia by Hilton Atlanta, so their commute to and from the Stadium was mere steps!
It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime night for precious Griffin and his deserving family!
A special thanks to all the photographers that captured these beautiful moments, including Amanda Coker, Lux Photography & Services and the Atlanta United Team.
