Brief Summary

Harris Family needs help recovering financially after enormous medical debt from Carter's (their son's) Life Flight, rescue attempt, and tragic drowning, as well as Quinn's (their daughter's) 3-year battle against cancer, near-death emergency last fall, and subsequent two-month stay in hospital.

The Fuller Story

The week before Thanksgiving, a typical school night spiraled instantly into a tragedy when my sister Brooke Harris called for her 10-year-old son, Carter, to get out of the bath. When he didn't respond, her heart and stomach dropped through the floor, and she sprinted to the bath only to find her beloved boy face down in the water, unresponsive. Chaos ensued as rescue efforts consumed their home. Moments later, as EMTs loaded Carter onto a Life Flight helicopter bound for Anschutz Children's Hospital, Chad turned to Brooke and said in disbelief, "I think we might have lost our boy." Carter was kept on life support for nearly five days, when he was officially declared dead, and even for an extra day after that declaration while preparations were made for multiple organ donations. The Harris family had been catapulted into a new chapter of a cruel, living nightmare that included mountains of medical debt.

Carter was indescribably magnificent—such a radiant child, with a hilarious sense of humor, a searing intellect, a sweet disposition, natural athleticism, and fathoms of unbridled curiosity. We miss that dear boy severely. His absence still shocks us and leaves us with a profound, unrelenting loss. And the tragedy itself remains mysterious and incomprehensible. Doctors have conjectured that a "traumatic medical event"—possibly a seizure, an arrhythmia, or some other cardiac or cerebral condition—caused Carter, who was an adept swimmer, to drown. The lack of an explanation precludes understanding, which, in turn, precludes a scrap of anything resembling healing or peace, if any such things could ever even be possible.

And this family is in desperate need of mercifulness. I previously mentioned "a new chapter" of their nightmare because they'd endured several already. In late 2022, Carter's big sister, Quinn, was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. The treatment protocol is beyond brutal, involving radiation and a chemotherapy regimen that is so maximal it literally constitutes a lifetime limit (i.e., if cancer were to recur, chemo would not be an option). Quinn battled and battled, and Carter was beside her every step of the way, as the most loyal and adoring of brothers. Quinn then joined an experimental trial in hopes of preventing recurrence. The trial seemed to be a success, but within a month, just as Quinn was beginning to get her strength and energy back, her own immune system ambushed her, leading to heart and lung failure, ECMO, a medical coma, nearly a month in the PICU, and almost sixty days in the hospital. It was harrowing, but Quinn, a strong-spirited force of nature, made it—thank goodness!

Everyone had been so worried about Quinn for so long that when tragedy befell Carter, it struck like lightning, catching everyone off guard. Amid limitless grief and a horrid void, the Harris family is now trying to piece their life back together, which includes needing to get out from under crushing accumulations of debt. Brooke and Chad have had to take lengthy spells off of work to be bedside with their children in the hospital, which has cost them countless income while facing significant medical bills from three years of fighting Ewing Sarcoma, from traveling back and forth between Colorado and Ohio for Quinn's clinical trial, from Quinn's time in the PICU last fall, from Carter's Life Flight and rescue attempt, from Carter's time on life support, and therapy for everyone in the family.

Recently, Brooke and family have been given an exceedingly thin sliver of hope, of sorts. After having spent time at the Selah House and Carefarm, and after having worked with the good people at Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood Foundation (SUDC), the Harris family is pursuing the advocacy of a forensic professional, who might be able to see that Carter participates in post-mortem studies that could yield information helping them better understand the traumatic medical event that caused his drowning. Gaining even the smallest degree of a better understanding would mean the world to this family.

Any contributions you can make to help them get a financial foothold again would be enormously appreciated—by the Harris Family and their entire extended family as well. Thank you for caring, for your generosity, and if you've read this far, for your patience with my long-windedness!

It's also extremely important to the Harrises and family that you who have already helped know how very appreciated you are. And "help" here is meant in the widest possible sense of the term, not only in a financial sense but also in one that includes the love, thoughts, prayers, hugs, tears, time, energy, care, temporary housing, help with various tasks and errands, volunteering of skills and materials and hard hours to transform their home from a post-trauma wreck into a beautiful and loving sanctuary, and all other forms of support, all of which means more than words could possibly express. In their darkest days, the Harrises have felt love and warmth from their dear friends and community in Evergreen, the kind folks of Parmalee, Carter's and Quinn's friends and their families, the doctors and medical staff at Aschutz, Play Therapy friends and colleagues, MSU Denver coworkers, those in the organ-donor community, friends of friends, indirect connections, Selah House, SUCD, Marshall Lyles and Eliana Gil, the Marshall's Miniatures community, and many others. The outpouring of love has been a vital and sustaining force when it was needed most. You have our profound gratitude.

Thank you,

Geoffrey Babbitt

On behalf of the Harris Family—Brooke, Chad, Quinn, & Carter

With Laramie & Jared Jake and Cherie & Jim Clayton

N.B. This GoFundMe campaign operates with the deepest gratitude upon the postulational principle that all contributions are made as a result of the contributors' detached and disinterested generosity, and without the contributors receiving or expecting to receive goods or services of any kind in return.