Cascade teen is Kid Captain for third Hawkeye football game
Beau Harvey received a heart transplant at Stead Family Children’s Hospital
Born in Michigan with a rare heart defect, Beau Harvey underwent three open-heart surgeries before his health journey led to a heart transplant at University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital, the only hospital in Iowa that performs pediatric heart transplants.
Beau was diagnosed before birth with hypoplastic right heart syndrome, a rare congenital defect in which the heart’s right side is underdeveloped. Serious forms of the condition require a series of surgeries to reroute blood to the lungs.
“We had two ultrasounds,” says Beau’s mother, Kelsey. “At 28 weeks, they were listening to his heartbeat and he had an abnormal rhythm. They said sometimes this is an indication of a malformation, so they admitted us for testing and that’s when they found it.”
Kelsey and her husband, Jared, were living in Detroit at the time, where Kelsey was in the final year of her podiatric residency. But her medical training didn’t prepare her for what lay ahead for their son.
Multiple health issues
Beau was diagnosed with two other rare congenital heart defects at the same time: total anomalous pulmonary venous return, in which pulmonary veins drain into the right atrium instead of the left, and heterotaxy syndrome, where his chest and abdominal organs are mirror-imaged and he has no spleen.
“Never before had I heard of that,” Kelsey says.
He was born at 39 weeks and underwent his first open-heart surgery within hours to repair his total anomalous pulmonary venous return. Though he initially did well, Beau went into cardiac arrest the next day and was placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, which circulated his blood outside his body via a heart-lung machine.
Beau was discharged three weeks later but returned to the Michigan hospital for a hemi-Fontan, another open-heart surgery used to treat infants with a single functional heart ventricle.
A move to Iowa
Kelsey’s job brought the family to Iowa, where they connected with Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Beau’s Iowa care team worked with his Michigan team as the family prepared to return to Michigan for his next surgery. The family also returned to Michigan for surgery related to Beau’s heterotaxy syndrome. After he returned to Iowa, his care team inserted a feeding tube to help him gain weight.
Shortly before Beau turned 2, the family returned to Michigan for his final planned open-heart surgery, called a Fontan. Although the surgery was successful, Beau developed a rare complication called plastic bronchitis. The condition causes lymph fluid to build up in the airways and form rubbery plugs, known as casts, that make breathing difficult.
Surgery at Stead Family Children’s Hospital temporarily resolved the condition, but the casts returned when Beau was 5. His family then traveled to Philadelphia, home to the only hospital offering a lymphatic embolization procedure for plastic bronchitis at the time.
The treatment helped for about six years. But when the casts returned again at age 12, Beau and his family returned to Philadelphia for further evaluation. During that stay, his care teams in Philadelphia and Iowa City worked together and determined that it was time to pursue a heart transplant.
Short wait for a heart
Beau was in the right place, as University of Iowa Health Care is the only health system in Iowa to offer heart transplantation.
He was placed on the United Network for Organ Sharing heart transplant list in August 2025. The wait for a donor heart can last several months or even years, but less than three months later, Beau’s parents received a call that a heart had been found.
“To Beau, the thought of having a heart that functions like everyone else – he was really struggling at the time – he thought it sounded pretty awesome,” Kelsey says. “Beau was nervous, but excited, and Jared was nervous, but not as nervous as me. I was terrified.”
The transplant coordinator helped calm the family’s fears by explaining what to expect. In November 2025, Beau underwent a 14-hour transplant surgery at Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
“Everything happened so quickly,” Kelsey says, adding that they plan to reach out to thank the donor’s family. “It felt surreal.”
Although the transplant was successful, Beau wasn’t out of the woods. Instead of spending an anticipated four weeks in the hospital, he remained there for more than four months. His new heart was functioning, but his lungs did not improve, Kelsey says, and he nearly died three times.
Beau was sedated and placed on ECMO to help with his recovery. Child life services, palliative care, psychiatry, and music therapy also supported him.
“He just turned a corner and finally started getting better,” Kelsey says.
Beau came home in March. His lung function has improved, and the 21 medications he initially took have been reduced.
“The care he received was absolutely amazing,” Kelsey says, crediting the many people involved in Beau’s care — from nurses, therapists and technicians to specialists, surgeons and support staff. “Everyone just worked so hard.”
Now 15 and a sophomore in high school, the Cascade teen loves math, football, video games, and playing cards. Beau hopes to go out for sports this year, something he has long aspired to do.
“Every single person at Stead Family Children’s Hospital has become family,” Kelsey says. “We could not have made it this far without them. To say that Beau has received world-class care is the understatement of the century. It has been so much more than that, and we will forever be grateful.”
Kid Captain Hall of Fame
Each football season, we welcome 12 unforgettable patients into our Kid Captain Hall of Fame. Explore our four most recent stories.
At age 4, unusual bruising led Charlie and his family to Stead Family Children’s Hospital, where he was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia, a rare and life-threatening bone marrow disorder.
When unusual bruising appeared on Charlie Price’s back and arm at age 4, his parents began searching for answers, ultimately leading to a rare diagnosis of severe aplastic anemia.
Millie was transferred to Stead Family Children’s Hospital shortly after birth due to breathing issues, eventually undergoing open heart surgery at just 4 months old. She was diagnosed with a rare syndrome, Bannayan–Riley–Ruvalcaba.
After multiple misdiagnoses, Ray Walker’s parents saw a "night and day” difference in their son’s care after arriving at University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
Patient Stories
