Fischman Family Story

The Harrison Fischman Family

Harrison Fischman is a lively 9-year-old boy who you will often find throwing a football around with volunteers at THON events. He has a twin brother, Hudson, and an older brother, Hayden, who will be 19 next month. The Fischmans love spending time outdoors, playing soccer, football, and gaming.

When Harrison was sixteen months old, he and Hudson went to the pediatrician for their well baby visits. The pediatrician went through Harrison’s exam and immediately called another physician and a resident in to check his belly.

“I knew something wasn’t right. I didn’t know what that something was, but I knew something wasn’t right,” Helen, Harrison’s mom, said.

The next thing she knew, Helen and Harrison were sent to the Harrisburg hospital for an ultrasound. Helen said that as soon as she left the office, her mothers’ intuition told her that Harrison was extremely sick. At the hospital, the ultrasound technician performed the scan, then had the radiologist come in to repeat the scan. Helen was ready to pack a very fussy Harrison up and go home, but the doctors told her that she could not go home. The pediatrician called and said that they had found a mass on Harrison’s kidney, and that he had been directly admitted to Penn State Health Children’s Hospital in Hershey for further testing.

When Helen and Harrison arrived at the hospital, they were taken up to the oncology floor, which confirmed Helen’s suspicion that Harrison may have had cancer. The next day, April 20, 2017, the doctors confirmed that he had a Stage-4 Wilms tumor with metastasis to the lungs.

The plan of attack was a radical left nephrectomy and the placement of a mediport. Harrison had been admitted on Wednesday, and they performed the nephrectomy and placed the central line two days later. Harrison was discharged a few days later and got to go home.

About two weeks later, Helen got a call from oncology asking them to come in that very day and start chemotherapy. After Harrison’s first round of chemo, he refused to eat or drink, so he had to be admitted to the hospital for a few days until they could get his fluids in. Harrison continued chemotherapy through mid-June.

During his seventh week of chemotherapy treatment, Harrison returned home, and Helen left him and his siblings with her mother so that she could run some errands. Helen had left her phone in the car, and when she checked it, she realized she had multiple missed calls. Harrison had not woken up from his nap, and when she returned home, he had a grayish color tone. Helen took Harrison right back to the hospital, where he wound up in the pediatric intensive care unit until the end of June.

“Any mom with a cancer kiddo knows that when you end up in the PICU, it is not a good place to be,” Helen said.

By the following morning, it was obvious that Harrison was critical. He was intubated, had another line placed, and was receiving 20 medications and various blood products. Harrison had to have two drains placed in his abdomen to drain the fluid from his belly.

Because Harrison’s liver was failing, the doctors had to consult with another hospital, either in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. Helen had a dream that night before Harrison’s last chemo and woke up at 4:12 a.m. so, when she had to make a choice, she chose Pittsburgh whose area code was 412. Harrison’s care team consulted with Pittsburgh, and close to a week later it was determined that he had to be transported to receive care in Pittsburgh. Harrison was life-flighted to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh at the end of June. Helen drove on her own to meet Harrison at the hospital and beat the helicopter there because they had a hard time stabilizing Harrison on the ventilator to transport him.

Helen and Harrison spent the entire summer in the intensive care unit in Pittsburgh. Harrison had multiple surgeries, including multiple failed TIPS procedures, an abdominal bleed, was on CRRT (constant dialysis), and his liver was failing. There were many points where they thought they would lose him. Helen recalled that the longest hours of her life were those that she spent waiting for Harrison to be returned to her from the operating room.

“Towards the end of Harrison’s stay in Pittsburgh, they said that I would need to make arrangements for long-term care. I was adamant that we did not come this far to fail, and we were not looking at long-term care,” Helen said.

In addition to the liver and kidney failure, Harrison also had Aspergillus, a fungus that took away a portion of his nose. At this point, Harrison had many scars from his multiple surgeries and procedures. Helen felt like it was another gut punch; Harrison had never done anything to deserve any of this.

Throughout Harrison’s stay in Pittsburgh, Helen still had to take care of her other two children at home in Harrisburg. When Harison had easy days, Helen would drive six to seven hours round-trip once a week to see Hudson and Hayden and then return to Pittsburgh at night. Four Diamonds covered Helen’s gas, toll fees, and her stay at Ronald McDonald House while she was in Pittsburgh. They also gave out daily meal vouchers and covered what insurance did not cover for Harrison’s medications and life flight.

Helen was in school to finish her degree while Harrison was in the hospital. She was offered an opportunity to take medical leave for Harrison but knew that she could not walk away. Helen took her finals for the spring semester in Harrison’s ICU room and then started the next semester in the ICU. Helen said that it was a necessary distraction. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree with honors in December 2019.

The entire time that Harrison was in Pittsburgh, the goal was to get him well enough to return home to the hospital in Hershey. Harrison eventually improved to the point where the doctors decided to extubate him, but he went into withdrawal due to all of the medication that he had been on, and they had to place the tube again. Harrison was eventually able to be extubated again, and was able to begin physical, speech, and occupational therapy and leave the intensive care unit.

At the end of August, Harrison was able to return home to Hershey and was transported by Life Lion ambulance. When he arrived back at Hershey, he was in the very room that he had been diagnosed in just four months earlier.

Harrison had fallen behind developmentally as a result of his summer in Pittsburgh, he was nearly two years old and had to learn how to walk, talk, and eat. He continued to receive therapies at the hospital, as well as weaning down from his medications. Harrison was finally able to return home after another month at Hershey. By his second birthday in December, they had seen many improvements and were able to keep Harrison out of the hospital.

Harrison is now in third grade. He receives help for math, speech, OT, and PT due to long-term effects of his treatment, and has limited working memory. Despite this, one of his core memories is THON. He knows when THON Weekend is every year, and he remembers all the fun that he has at events.

“He is the only kid I know that has fallen asleep on the floor of the BJC during the weekend. He does not ever want to leave,” Helen said.

The Fischman Family is paired with Alpha Epsilon Pi and Alpha Phi, and you can often find him and his brothers throwing around a ball at THON events with members of their organizations.

“You make it fun. You make it fun for moms like me, who used to go to THON with three kids; one who couldn’t walk, one who was all over the place, and one that was a teenager,” Helen said.

After seeing the support from all of Harrison’s nurses and doctors, Helen decided on a sleepless night that she wanted to give something back. She decided to do a pajama drive, because she remembered that Harrison was finally able to start wearing pajamas again once he got better. She made a few phone calls and was able to get 360 pairs donated to the hospitals at Pittsburgh and Hershey. The Fischman Family continues to do Harrison’s PJs for Pediatrics every year for Harrison’s birthday and has donated over 3,000 pairs over the last eight years.

“You give them the Walt Disney experience from Friday to Sunday every year. I never really wanted to be a part of this club, but I’m glad my boys are able to spend this time with you. I am sorry for what had Harrison had to go through to be a part of it, but I couldn’t be happier to be a part of this and part of making a difference and volunteering and giving back to you guys as much as I can,” Helen said.

Harrison is now nine years old and is thriving in the third grade. He is very responsible and has made great friends at school. He has been cancer-free for seven years! The Fischman Family is looking forward to attending THON 2025 and making more core memories!