Brady Mackall likes things other 11-year-olds do.
He likes Xbox.
He likes animals – particularly his two dogs and multiple goats and surprisingly friendly chickens. Helping his parents with the care of the latter two groups helped pay for the Xbox.
But Brady also has had to deal with something most 11-year-olds don’t have to: six heart surgeries since he was two weeks old. He was born with Tetralogy of Fallot – in layman’s terms, a congenital defect that results in a hole between the lower chambers of the heart and creates an obstruction from the heart to the lungs. His most recent surgery in 2014 placed a pig’s valve into his heart and has been successful enough that he likely won’t need another until at least age 18.
