TJ's Story

TJ Pfannenstiel
Age 7
Children’s Hospital
Heart Failure

The Green Bay Packer’s “Best Fan” has seen his favorite team play the Bears, toured the Packer facilities, and even has a Get Well card from Brett Favre. But Tim and Linda Pfannenstiel of Nebraska nearly lost this fan, their otherwise healthy 7-year-old son, in 2008 when a virus attacked his heart and caused complete heart failure.

TJ had been experiencing flu-like symptoms for a few days, but when TJ started complaining that his “heart hurt” in the Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, an EKG, X-ray and echocardiogram confirmed the worst. TJ experienced complete heart failure in the Pediatric ICU and was immediately placed on an ECMO machine.

Thanks to the highly skilled staff and specialized equipment at Children’s Hospital, TJ was able to avoid having heart surgery by having a less invasive heart catheterization procedure. TJ bravely fought for his life and after five days was taken off the ECMO machine, and within 10 days was up and walking the halls of the hospital with a walker.

Although this athlete missed all of his soccer team’s games, TJ received a special trophy at the end of the season for being the “strongest and bravest player” on the team.