'Grateful and excited': Pediatric patients going to Brewers spring training

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Three pediatric patients from Wisconsin were surprised with a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

"I feel good. Grateful and excited," 13-year-old Dazian Garcia said.

Garcia is just one of three boys headed to Arizona next week with his family. Aurora Health Care and the Milwaukee Brewers are sponsoring an all-expense paid trip to Phoenix for the families of these patients.

"I'm very excited. We're very blessed to have this opportunity," Kayle Strege, mom of 9-year-old Owen, said after the announcement.

"Just for him to get this experience, especially at the start of his love for sports. It's going to make a big impact."

All three patients have experienced health challenges and struggles.

Nolen was diagnosed with an inherited genetic condition. Also called “soft bone disease,” it's a condition that impacts his bones as they don’t mineralize calcium and break easily.

Owen lacks a specific hormone needed to grow, so he takes daily injections to ensure he keeps growing. Dazian is celebrating the first anniversary of open-heart surgery to repair a congenital heart condition.

"Just thinking about it makes me feel some type of way," Dazian's dad Manuel Garcia said about his son's surgery. "But we're excited now that he can do anything now. He's like any other kid."

During their trip to the desert, the families will meet Brewers players, tour the locker room and throw the first pitch during next Saturday's game.