Texas Children's Hospital saving the youngest of lives

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- It can be frightening for any family with a newborn facing cardiac complications. That's what happened three years ago with a mother who actually went into labor leaving a Texans game. Little did she know, her child's road to recovery would have strong ties to Houston's favorite football team.

3-year-old Alec is a healthy young boy today, but the journey getting here was a challenging one for he and his parents. His mother, Hollie Aranda, will never forget the day she went into labor at a Texans game.

"Alec was born. He was born at 3:00 in the morning on September 10th and everything was fine. But about 5 hours after he was born, his heart had started racing over 300 times a minute" Aranda told us.

So Alec was rushed to the Texas Children's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Chief of Cardiology at Texas Children's Hospital, Dr. Daniel Penny said, "he had a condition known as Ventricular Tachycardia. And this is a very serious heart rhythm problem, which could be fatal if not actively aggressively treated."

Dr. Penny said Alec also had a problem with one of his heart valves as well.

"And so when we're faced with a child like Alec with multiple problems in their heart, it's really important for us to have a team of cardiologists with sub-specialty interests looking after them," Dr. Penny said.

"I just thought, what's going to happen to our child? It was just so scary that I didn't know what to expect," Aranda said.

But Alec progressed well in the 12 days is stayed in the NICU.

Dr. Penny said "thankfully were able to deal with this using medications."

During his stay, Alec received a visit from two important Houstonians.

"His 1st full day there, the McNairs happening to be visiting. They came and visited him and Ms. McNair gave him a bear," Aranda said. "He has the picture on the wall of the McNairs with him when he was a baby with the ticket of whenever I went into labor."

And just recently, the McNairs were named as honorary chairs of the Promise Campaign for Texas Children's Hospital.

Dr. Penny said "Thanks to the support of Mr. and Mrs. McNair and the people of Houston and their amazing support of the Promise campaign, we are now going to have in Houston the greatest pediatric heart center that was ever seen."

Today, Alec loves the Texans and they're a part of his life.

"He pretends to be J.J. Watt instead of Superman. He put on a cape the other day and was like I'm J.J. Watt" Aranda told us.

Now he's waiting for mom and dad to take him to his first Texans home game.