By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
With handmade signs, chants of “Keegan! Keegan!” and a blur of flags and pom poms, students of the Notre Dame School of Dallas lined their school’s hallways Aug. 13 to give a warm send-off to their classmate Keegan Harrison as he prepared to represent Team USA at the World Transplant Games in Dresden, Germany, Aug. 17-24.
Held every two years, the World Transplant Games is an international sporting event, recognized by the International Olympic Committee, that brings together thousands of transplant donors and recipients for a week of athletic competition. Keegan, who received a lifesaving heart transplant as an infant, competed in two of the 17 World Transplant Games events, assisted by his mother, Madeleine Harrison.
The occasion marked a historic moment for the Harrison family, but also for the NDS community, said Debie Smith, a PE teacher and Special Olympics Head of Delegation at the school. While several NDS students have dribbled down soccer fields for the FC Dallas Unified team, or dazzled in Special Olympics cheerleading competitions, Smith said Keegan’s attendance at the World Transplant Games is a first among the school’s pupils.
“The school is excited that he gets to go,” she said ahead of the competition, “and just wanted to say good luck and have fun.”
NDS President Caroline O’Brien echoed the sentiment, sharing that she was “thrilled” Keegan, who is in the NDS Bridges Program, would take part in the World Transplant Games alongside his mother.
“Their participation embodies our mission of empowering every individual to reach their full potential,” she said, “inspiring our community through their dedication and resilience.”
Sidelines to finish lines
At one week old, and weighing less than five pounds, Keegan officially became the youngest and smallest transplant recipient in Texas — and, at the time, the smallest in the country — the day he received the heart that saved his life. The years that followed brought complications: kidney failure, fevers, strokes, and a coma that required him to relearn how to walk, to talk, to eat. Despite the struggles, the Harrisons persisted, seeking more than just survival for Keegan: They wanted a joy-filled life — which, for the Harrison family, included athletics.
“We always loved to run and everything like that; and so even while Keegan was still immediately post-transplant, we had family members doing a 5K wearing Ks for Keegan t-shirts,” Madeleine said. As he grew older, Keegan wanted to race too, but his physical limitations often barred him from competing.
“In a lot of these things, he ended up just sitting on the sidelines, cheering and not getting to participate,” his mother shared. She recalled a particular triathlon she ran where, as she neared the finish line, Keegan burst into tears; he wanted to cross too.
“He wanted that feeling of accomplishment and participation, and it was against the rules for him to go across the finish line,” Madeleine said. “So, at that point, we pledged that he would never be on the sidelines again.”
Since then, Keegan has not only been involved in baseball and basketball leagues for children with disabilities, but he has also competed alongside his mother in push-assist races: athletic competitions in which a participant, competing in a racing wheelchair, is pushed by an assisting team member.
“As a push-assist team, we compete in the physically challenged, or PC, category,” Madeleine said. “He loves triathlons and running and cycling; and since he can’t do those things on his own, we are his arms and his legs and his feet to make sure that he gets to participate.”
Gold for Keegan
As Keegan, now 17, stepped into the arena for the World Transplant Games this August, he was one among the approximately 2,500 athletes from more than 50 countries present — all of whom had been touched in some way by organ transplantation.
“Every single athlete that was out there with us had experienced the same things that we had experienced, that Keegan had been through,” Madeleine said. “When you have medical issues… it can be a very lonely road; and to be out there and see all these athletes from all around the world that ‘got it,’ that knew exactly in some form or fashion what we had been through, it felt so empowering and so validating.”
Keegan’s first event at the games was a 5K running race, Aug. 18, in which he was assisted by his mother, who pushed “200 pounds of chair and Keegan” for the entirety of the race. Keegan fell short of bronze by 21 seconds; but he had another event a few days later: the sprint triathlon.
The race, as always, started with a swim. Riding in a kayak attached to Madeleine’s waist, Keegan cheered — for his mother and for his competitors — as he completed the first segment of the race, followed by the biking and running portions, during which Madeleine pulled then pushed Keegan’s wheelchair. As the only competitors in the physically challenged, or PC, category for that triathlon event, Keegan and Madeleine took home the gold for Team USA.
“He was thrilled. He was absolutely thrilled,” Madeleine said, recalling her son’s reaction. “To him, I think it was just a big adventure of getting to do the things that he loves, to do it in a really fun and different way.”
Asked about the support Keegan received from his NDS classmates throughout his adventure, Madeleine said she was moved by the way the community gathered around her son.
“His classmates, the entire school, went out of their way to lift him up and support him and to encourage him and to encourage us,” Madeleine said. “I run the risk of getting teary when I start to talk about it, because there’s truly no place like Notre Dame. They have opened their arms to Keegan; and it is a family. It’s truly a family.”
Editor’s note: For information about the Harrison family’s nonprofit, Ks for Keegan, which was created to help transplant recipients on their wellness journeys, visit ksforkeegan.com.
Cutline for featured image: Keegan Harrison, a student in Notre Dame School of Dallas’ Bridges Program, receives high fives and enthusiastic cheers from his school community as they give him a send-off Aug. 13 ahead of his participation in the World Transplant Games in Germany. (AMY WHITE/The Texas Catholic)
