Give Harrison a Garden & Hot tub for hydrotherapy

Hi I’m Angie, Harrison’s mummy

I’ve been putting off doing this for a long time because I believe if you want something you’ll get it yourself…….

we work hard & never ask anyone for anything but now we need that help and I have no choice but to ask

31st October 2018 while on holiday in Ayrshire my waters broke 10 weeks early and baby Harrison was delivered by emergency C Section 3rd August. I didn’t get to see him, I only saw his skinny little hand waving as they whisked him away to special care. Harrison was born with meningitis and sepsis. The following day he also developed pneumonia and he suffered a grade 3 bleed on the brain. We were told to get our families down to meet him immediately as he wasn’t expected to last the night.

I remember going for a shower after getting the news as I needed time to process what I’d just been told. In truth I stood there in the water, sobbed & bawled my eyes out praying for my boy to live. I made a promise right there & then that if Harrison survived I’d be by his side for the rest of his life…… I’ve never left him yet.

when Harrison was 10 days old I got my first cuddle, only for seconds before he was whisked away again & transported to Ninewells in Dundee as that was closer to home

Once there he had head scans everyday and over the course of the coming weeks endured a spinal tap & countless head taps (a needle inserted into his soft spot) to drain Cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) to relieve the pressure on his brain. The bleed he’d had has blocked the drainage passages meaning the fluid builds up and has no where to go. This makes his head expand and when the pressure gets too high he goes into a coma like state. Left untreated he’d fall asleep and never wake up again

Harrison & I stayed in Ninewells untill he was strong enough to come home 26/9/18

This was short lived as the fluid took over and he slipped back into his coma state and on the 2nd October 2018 he underwent his first major brain surgery to fit a VP shunt to help drain the fluid & keep him alive . This failed and was removed on the 28th October and a new shunt inserted on the 3rd November. Things still weren’t great and many hospital visits later he underwent surgery on the 23rd of December to repair the shunt pipe. On Boxing Day morning we knew the surgery had failed so again we were back in for more surgery on December 26th

We had thought that was it and it would be plain sailing from there, but sadly it wasn’t. Harrison still wasn’t right and as much as I shouted and screamed, no one would listen until eventually at the end of January after losing my dad I went back to Ninewells and we kicked up of fuss. The surgeon finally listened but it was too late and we have to go to Glasgow because without this surgery, Harrison will die.

On the 6th of March 2019 Harrison underwent surgery in Glasgow. This surgery was known as an ETV with fourth ventricle fenstration. Thankfully, touchwood that is the last surgery he’s had.

In his first year of life he underwent six major brain surgeries. I lost count of the amount of times we nearly lost him. It breaks my heart to look back. I always try to look forward but even that is hard to do. You see if Garrisons shunt fails due to the amount of brain damage our boys already sustained if he doesn’t get treatment immediately we may never bring him home again, even if he survives. So we are ALWAYS on high alert.

When Harrison was roughly 9 months old (6 corrected due to prematurity) we attended a development check up. The doctors were absolutely stunned because he was sitting up unaided. It was then that they told us he had suffered so much brain damage that they didn’t expect him to do anything other than breathe on his own.

This was devastating and very hard to hear

However, Harrison wasn’t having that nonsense. He attends school, he walks, he talks, he sings and he laughs….. boy does he laugh!

Harrison has been registered blind, he has a cerebral visual impairment

He has Epilepsy, nystagmus, cerebral palsy, global development delay, hypermobility, he has limited vocabulary, autism, echolalia and he cannot stand or walk I unaided

We initially started him at a primary school in Angus. But they failed severely meeting his needs. So we packed up everything and relocated to Aberdeenshire in the hope that he’d be accepted into a specialist school. It took us six months to even get him on the list, then it had to go to a panel meeting to decide whether or not he was disabled enough to be given the space.

Thankfully, our gamble paid off and he was accepted. He is absolutely thriving.

When Harrison was initially discharged from hospital, we were promised by Physio that he would receive hydrotherapy sessions as his legs are the worst affected part. We have paid for private physio sessions at £450 per time. We’ve seen him walk on a treadmill and use a leg press all thanks to these sessions but they are just not affordable to keep going

We moved out of a house we owned to a rented property to get him into the school he needed. We packed up our businesses and moved them to. We have used all of our savings doing this.

We are now in our dream home but the gatden leaves a lot to be desired and it’s not safe for Harrison to play in

He still hasn’t receiving the hydrotherapy as promised, although he does receive swimming sessions at school. We used to take him weekly to a swim class but they won’t accept him now he’s over 5.

It is our dream for Harrison to have a garden that is safe to play in and a hot tub so he can enjoy the hydrotherapy sessions at home

Please help us make this dream come true not for us but for our boy who has fought every day to be here and every day to prove the doctors wrong. Because he absolutely CAN do more than breathe. Every day he astounds us with something new. He has a memory like you wouldn’t believe. And he is the funniest., happiest little boy that you’ll ever meet

So please, please help us make this happen for him

Thank you

Harrison’s mummy xx