Seattle Mariners Surprise Hospitalized Fan With Special Stadium Suite to Watch Game
The fan hadn't been outside of the hospital for over 8 months.
— -- The Seattle Mariners recently surprised a super-fan who hadn't been outside of a local hospital's intensive care unit for over eight months due to a heart ailment, according to a report.
The Major League Baseball team set up a special suite on Tuesday at the Safeco Stadium, where patient Mike Jackson, 32, got a special view of the Mariners' defeating the Detroit Tigers 7-6, according to ABC affiliate KOMO News.
Jackson donned a Robinson Cano jersey, Mariners cap and cheered along with the Mariner Moose mascot, friends, family and six medical caregivers, KOMO reported.
The Mariners fan has been battling serious heart problems since he was born with a heart defect and had been in the ICU of the University of Washington Medical Center since an incident that stopped his heart in October, according to KOMO.
Jackson has only been allowed brief excursions outside the hospital doors once a week, nurses told KOMO.
"I think this is the longest he's been outside total since October," a family member told the station. She added that Jackson always asked relatives to stay and watch the Mariners with him whenever they visited the hospital on a game day.
The Mariners got connected with Jackson after some of his nurses sent in a request, said the team's community relations manager Jeri Baer.
"We got the letter Monday afternoon, made it happen Tuesday and we're just so, so thrilled everything came together," Baer told ABC News. "We got to meet him and his family, which was very emotional for sure, but it was so nice to see him so happy. He looked like he had the time of his life."
Baer added that the team also gave Jackson a baseball autographed by his favorite player, Robinson Cano, along with some bobbleheads.
Jackson was recently listed under "critical condition" in the intensive care unit on Thursday, a UW Medical Center spokeswoman told ABC News, adding that it was "really fortunate" Jackson was able to get the Mariners experience.
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