By Matt Gade

605 Sports

BUFFALO — “Mom, you’re not going to say ‘no’ to basketball, right?”

Getting to play basketball with his friends and classmates is one of the most exciting prospects for 11-year-old Brady Thompson of rural Buffalo, who has a new lease on life.

Brady and his family spent over a year in Michigan as he received and recovered from a heart transplant operation at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

On Nov. 6, 2023, Brady, 10 years old at the time, underwent transplant surgery to finally give the young kid a chance at a normal life after having been born with a defective heart. 

Brady and his family would have to spend the next 12 months residing close to the university for monitoring, recovery and rehabilitation.

On. Nov. 26 of this year, the Thompson family was finally back home at their ranch, 1,300 miles away from the big-city hospital, in the rural, unpopulated region in the Northwest corner of South Dakota.

‘Born with it’

Before he was even born, the Thompson family found out their third child would have a congenital heart defect: hypoplastic left heart syndrome. At his 20-week ultrasound, the Thompson family received the news.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HLHS occurs when the left side of the heart does not form correctly during pregnancy, obstructing blood flow through the heart. 

“Little tough,” Brady’s mom Terisa said jokingly of the condition. “Because that is the worst of the congenital heart defects you can have.”

During Terisa’s pregnancy, she and her husband, Mac, took the advice from their doctors at Sanford Health and looked into multiple healthcare facilities that specialized in neonatal and pediatric cardiac care, ultimately selecting the University of Michigan, where Brady would undergo the most common corrective path for the defect: three separate open-heart surgeries spread over time.

“I went out there (Ann Arbor) to deliver him, and then, at two days old was his first heart surgery,” Terisa said of Brady, who was born Oct. 1, 2013. “It's a three-stage repair. So, we had to have three surgeries. The first one was at two days, and the second one was at 18 months, and then the third one when he was two years old.”

The Thompsons knew Brady eventually would need a heart transplant, but typically the surgery delays the need to get onto the list until adulthood.

Just one day before his third birthday and just under two months since his third heart operation, Brady suffered another setback.

“We were home, and he was recovered from his third surgery, but he, for unknown reasons, had a heart attack at home,” Terisa said. “He went unresponsive, and we called 911, and they hauled him out and so that (heart attack) definitely did a lot more damage.”

Terisa said the ambulance rushed Brady to Spearfish, from where he was flown to Sioux Falls. That was the scariest moment in Brady’s life for Terisa, she said.

The doctors told his parents that Brady was going into heart failure and would need a heart transplant sooner rather than later. He was put on a variety of medications to help delay his need for a new heart and allow him to grow up physically, to improve his prognosis. As he waited, Brady and his parents made frequent trips back to Ann Arbor, where he was closely monitored.

The Thompson family, from left; Sloan Thompson, Terisa Thompson, Brady Thompson, Mac Thompson and Sydnee Thompson. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

‘Always looking out’

As the youngest of three siblings, Brady always had his older sisters, Sydnee and Sloan, now 18 and 16, respectively, watching out for him. Being born with his heart condition, Brady Brady’s development differed from his sisters’, and he rarely had the energy to keep up with them, and the girls adapted to unique roles as caregivers.

“They've grown up with it, knowing everything that he needs. So they're both really trustworthy,” Terisa said. 

On the ranch, Brady was still a young kid and would go and play and do what he could, but the family was always cautious trying to prevent Brady from getting into accidents. 

“His oxygen level was only ever about 80 percent,” Terisa said. “He'd get tired easier (than other kids his age) and out of breath easier. Couldn't tolerate heat very well, and what else. He was on blood thinners, so I was constantly worried about him falling off of anything and hitting his head.”

Eventually, when Brady went to school at Harding County, Sydnee and Sloan became their parents’ eyes and ears in the school.

“Even before the transplant … they knew what to watch for,” Terisa said.

After spending last Christmas in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Brady (center) and his sisters Sydnee (left) and Sloan are back celebrating Christmas at their family's ranch in rural Harding County. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

The teachers and staff at Harding County were also always understanding and mindful of Brady’s condition, she said, making sure not to push him too hard. And, from a unique vantage point where she could watch him in a town house they own across the street from the school, Brady said he often saw his concerned mother peering at him through binoculars. Still, Brady said, another member of the family was even more protective than his mother.

“You,” he said, pointing to his oldest sister, Sydnee.

“Oh really,” Terisa said as the family laughed.

Despite all of the concern – and probably as a result of the family’s vigilance – Brady was relatively healthy.

“I was healthy” from about age five until nine, he said. “Pretty good, actually. Yeah, I wasn't always feeling sick. I went to school til about nine.”

When Brady was nine, it started to become clear the medications that were helping curtail heart failure were starting to fail.

“They thought we were going to be back there five years before we were,” Terisa said. “So definitely the medications helped him for a long time. But then that was it.”

In August 2023, the plan was in place. The family had just a few months to plan before Brady would take up residence in Michigan for whatever period of time became necessary to accommodate his wait for a transplant and subsequent healing. Faced with moving their family of five 1,300 miles from their home and ranch tfor an indefinite period of time, the Thompsons immediately set to work securing temporary housing outside city limits to reduce expenses. They were pleased to find a home that would accommodate them comfortably that was available at just the right time. Thirteen miles north of Ann Arbor, the Thompsons settled into their temporary home in Whitmore Lake. The population of 8,000 is small in comparison to Ann Arbor, home to more than 119,000, but it was a bit of an adjustment for the family who was accustomed to living in Harding County with just 1,200 other people spread over 2,000 square miles. 

But they made the adjustment in order to ensure that Brady would have the care that he needed. On Nov. 2, 2023, he was admitted into the hospital and officially put on the heart transplant list.

“That was a very stressful time because we all knew what that meant,” Terisa said. “What we were doing is just waiting for him to get worse, and just watching and waiting to have it get bad enough.

“We weren't able to hope for any improvement. We knew it was going to get worse until it was time to move out there. No parent actually wants their kid to get worse.”

‘Pink toes’

“Be prepared to be in the hospital for up to nine months.”

That was the message the hospital staff told the Thompsons as they began the wait for a matching heart to become available for Brady.

“He was only on the list for four days,” Terisa said. “We were in-hospital patients for four days. And then, Nov. 5, they came in and said, ‘We have great news, shocked, we have a heart for Brady.’ And so he received a heart Nov. 6.”

“Months and months, is what we were expecting,” Terisa said. “It could be up to nine months living in the hospital, and he was going to be hooked up to an IV that whole time. So we were kind of trying to break that to him. Like, this is life now for a while – get comfortable, get used to this IV pole.”

Following Brady’s surgery, Dad said he saw an immediate change for the better.

“First thing we saw when he got out of the surgery … was his toes sticking out and they were pink. ‘Wow,’” Mac said.

Prior to surgery, Brady’s extremities had a blue – and sometimes purple – tint, due to lack of oxygen in his blood. Pink was a welcoming surprise.

“He’s got blood flow now,” Terisa said with a sigh of relief that now resembles a laugh.

Photos of Brady at the University of Michigan for his heart transplant surgery. (Photos courtesy Terisa Thompson)

For the next three weeks, Brady recovered in a bed at the University of Michigan before discharge.

“At the time, it kind of felt like, ‘Really, we can go home already?’ because it felt fresh. He was still sort of puffy and weak, so he definitely wasn't 100% all of a sudden, they let us out pretty early. It felt like,” Terisa said. “Then he had a paralyzed vocal cord from surgery for a while, so it was kind of whispering. So it wasn't an immediate recovery. It was not easy looking back now, not easy.”

The Thompsons would celebrate Christmas 2023 in Whitmore Lake, with relatives coming out to Michigan to celebrate with them.

For the most part, the next six months were mostly time for Brady to recover, heal and try to keep up with his education. An occasional friend made the trek out east for a visit, but most of the time was just the Thompsons.

Brady’s oldest sister Sydnee, who was in her senior year at Harding County, decided to complete her final year online. While she could have graduated early, she decided to continue to take classes, still managing to be named class Valedictorian.

When she wasn’t working on her own studies, Sydnee would serve as Brady’s teacher – an experience that definitely answered the question of whether Syndee wanted to go to college to become a teacher. 

“No…” Terisa said, laughing as Sydnee shook her head.

While Brady was learning from Sydnee, Sloan attended school in Michigan for her freshman year and, between lessons, Brady would make regular trips to Ann Arbor for his physical therapy and lab draws while being monitored to make sure his body didn’t reject his new heart.

Sloan and Sydnee made it back to Harding County for the school’s prom, which Terisa had to miss to care for Brady. She drove from Ann Arbor to Sioux Falls before Brady got sick. She handed the keys to her vehicle over to the girls and returned to Ann Arbor in a rental car.

The next trek home happened in May, when Sydnee walked across the stage with her classmates and spoke as the class Valedictorian. Brady was again sick, but he was determined to be present to celebrate his eldest sister’s accomplishment.

In the summer, the family made another trip back to South Dakota, where Sloan stayed to rejoin the Ranchers’ volleyball team for summer camp. In September, Mac returned the ranch to get things settled for the family’s official return home.

While they were away, Mac’s parents, Tedd and Carmen Thompson of Spearfish, split time between their home and on the ranch helping care for things, with help from other family and friends.

“They're just amazing,” Terisa said of her neighbors, adding that “everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows everything about (Brady).”

And, in typical rural South Dakota fashion, the help of friends and neighbors didn’t stop with the practical needs on the ranch.

“Our first big fundraiser was after he had his heart attack,” Terisa said, while the family was in Michigan. “That was a huge thing and then ever since then people have offered (help), they bring loads of hay or whatever, and they want to help work our big cattle working days when we were gone. Everybody just wants to help, great people.”

As grateful for the community they left at home, the Thompsons also found themselves embraced by those in their temporary town. Specifically, they became friends with members of the Northfield Township Police Department which includes Whitmore Lake, thanks to car trouble on their way home in August 2023. Lt. David Powell helped the Thompsons has they had car troubles and needed to switch out a water pump in their vehicle done by another new friend, mechanic Bill, as the family had just been given the directive to go home and pack and be prepared to move out to Ann Arbor.

“That was maybe kind of our sign, that's where we should live when we come back,” Terisa said. “Then, when he was discharged after transplant, the whole police department from Whitmore Lake and a bunch of them from Ann Arbor gave him police escorts out of there.”

“We didn't have to stop at any stoplights or anything,” Mac added.

By the time the family did get the okay to come back to their ranch, despite their new friendships, everyone was ready.

“I did really well for a while, just kind of accepted the fact this is how it was going to be,” Mac said. “But towards the end, I was ready to get out of there.”

“I think we were all ready, but a little nervous,” Terisa said. “That was kind of our safety blanket, being so close to all of our team of doctors, and he's followed by three different areas, you know, hematology and cardiology and infectious disease and all that. So it was a little nerve-wracking moving out here, but we were all ready.”

For Brady, he was ready about six months earlier. He was asking why they had to stay since he was feeling “good,” but he still had to continue with his regular checkups and tests.

It was when Brady finally came home to his family’s ranch that he felt good.

“Basically, the first time we like, came in the house, like this (Harding County) house on our final trip, I didn't feel sick,” Brady said. “I didn’t have any problems.”

‘We just want to go to bed’

Since coming home, Terisa and Mac have a new problem on their hands –trying to keep up with Brady’s newfound energy.

“It can be 10:30 at night and he's wanting to box with one of us, and we're like ‘it's time for bed,’” Terisa said. “Before the transplant, he couldn't do a lot. He didn't have a lot of energy and retaining so much fluid from being in heart failure that there was a lot that he couldn't do.”

Even before the transplant, Brady was known as a social butterfly. Now since he’s been home, Brady has been making up for lost socialization time with his friends again.

“He’s always been talkative … to everybody,” Mac said.

Unlike a lot of kids, Brady is really excited to return to school, as he will finally rejoin his classmates for the first time in over a year. However, he admits the desire is more about being with his friends than learning.

“Like 75 percent socialize and 25 percent learning,” Brady said.

“At least he’s honest,” Terisa laughed.

Until then, Brady has been making his rounds to see friends and family again. He recently attended a Ranchers basketball doubleheader, where he was named ‘Fan of the Game.’

Brady also went to the all-class school building to visit teachers and made stops in three different classrooms before he was able to surprise his sister, Sloan. 

The Thompsons said they enjoyed returning to Thanksgiving traditions with their family in South Dakota, and they look forward to sharing in three different Christmas celebrations over the course of the holiday week.

Since being home, Brady’s sisters especially have noticed a difference in their little brother.

He’s got non-stop energy. Ironically the only time he feels too tired to do something is when mom asks him to do his chores.

“I don’t think I realized how bad it was until after he got the heart transplant, and I see how he is acting now, and I was like, I never thought how bad it was,” Sloan said.

Brady, who is relatively small for his age, enjoyed a four-inch growth spurt since his heart transplant.

Since being home, Brady is starting to do a lot of things kids his age enjoy doing. He and Dad even went out and took some target practice, and he has helped Mac work with the cattle and other chores. 

Although Brady insists he is ready to embrace the fullness of life as a ranch kid, his family sometimes struggles to realize he is capable.

“It really hasn’t even sunk in yet, in the back of our minds,” Mac said as Terisa shook her head in agreement.

While the Thompsons get to celebrate Christmas at home and with their friends and family, they haven’t seen in what seems like ‘forever’ they will only be a complete family for just a couple more weeks. 

In January, Sydnee will finally head off to college where she will study Agronomy at South Dakota State University in Brookings. She says her brother’s health journey has made her more sure of her own journey, as her time in Michigan gave her a practice run with city life and the opportunity to “get her out of her shell.” Soon, she will join the roughly 12,000 students enrolled at SDSU.

Brady, too, is ready to try new things on his own, as he has been cleared for every activity, Terisa said. 

The biggest challenge for Mom now is not worrying. Although Terisa admits she often “gets into her own head” and worries more than she should, she is hopeful that the family’s new home base will ease some of her fears. Since they were in Michigan, the family has rented out the house in Buffalo. So spying on Brady might be a little trickier this time.

“I won't be there with the binoculars, (but) I might be in the parking lot,” Terisa said jokingly. “But I'm hoping I shouldn't have to worry.”

But, just to be sure, Brady will make quarterly, week-long visits to Michigan for check-ups.

At left; Brady and his family received a police escort out of town when he was finally discharged and sent home from the University of Michigan. Brady and his sisters were excited and ready to be back in their home in rural Buffalo. (Photos courtesy Terisa Thompson)

‘We hope someday to find out’

The Thompson family said there are too many people to list in gratitude for the support they’ve felt since Brady’s diagnosis at 20 weeks gestation, from their doctors at Sanford Health to the medical teams at the University of Michigan, to their neighbors and friends in and around Buffalo.

One thing they all definitely appreciated along the way, though, was the distraction that sports provided in Brady’s recovery. While Mac has been a Michigan fan for a long time, they all agree they’re now Wolverine fans for good. They even attended the Michigan-Northwestern game on Nov. 23  just before moving back home.

Brady said his two favorite teams are the Harding County Ranchers and Michigan Wolverines, but, if it came down to it, the Ranchers have his heart, as his friends wear purple and gold.

As family, friends and neighbors have been very kind and generous to the Thompsons there is one family they may never be able to say how grateful they are to: the family who donated the heart that beats inside of Brady.

“We don't know anything about the donor, but … before we left Michigan, (Brady) mailed his first letter to the donor family,” Terisa said. “But that has to go through Gift of Life Michigan, and then they okay it, and then they send it on — if it’s accepted or not. It’s all confidential. We may not ever hear back from the donor family. We don't know. We're hoping someday we get to find out who that family is.”

The family said they only knew the heart was from an older child, given its size, but it fit perfectly into Brady’s chest cavity as he always had an above-average-sized heart for his age.

As to Brady’s question about whether or not Mom will let him play fifth-grade basketball next year. 

“We’ll see. It’ll probably be okay,” she said.