Harlen-Rosalie’s Road to Recovery



As hard as this is for us to ask, we realize that we have to. Not because we want to, but because we need to for our family’s best.

As most of you know, our youngest daughter, Harlen-Rosalie, has been medivaced to Kapi'olani Hospital ICU with spinal meningitis. Our baby girl will turn one on July 6th, 2018 and we are so heart broken to see how much this infection has affected our baby. This is not something we  felt comfortable doing or even asking for, but we have come to realize that this is just the beginning of Harlen’s road to recovery. With both my husband and I being away from our business and having no other income to lean on, we decided that it was time we put our ego aside and ask for the help we really need.


Harlen was sick with an ear infection, upper viral infection and fever for a few weeks that was being treated with antibiotics. Her symptoms hadn’t subsided and since it was going on for so long, we took her to the ER. The doctors did blood tests, X-rays and also a lumbar puncture (spinal tap). The results came back and she had a high white blood cell count as well as spinal meningitis.
On Saturday June 23rd, the doctors at North Hawaii Community Hospital medivacked Harlen to Kapi’olani Hospital where she was put in the ICU.


A day went by and they got her stable enough so they transferred her down to the pediatric ward. Harlen was doing better while down there, but on the 3rd day of being in the pediatric ward, she had taken a turn for the worst. She stopped eating, drinking water and even breastfeeding. It looked as if she were having seizures and She showed more signs of stiffening on the left side of her body and she was also uncomfortable being in mommy’s arms (which is not of her). The doctors and nurses watched her closer and immediately transferred her back to ICU. 


More tests were done on Harlen like CT scan, blood work, blood cultures and an MRI. At this point, we were scared for our baby girl and just wanted her to get better like any other parent would want. The results came back from the tests that were done earlier and the doctors broke such heart breaking news to us. After looking at the MRI, the neurologist said Harlen had been having multiple strokes which caused the right side of her brain (that controls her left side of her body) to have a lot of damage. The damage was so bad that she was not getting enough blood flow or as much oxygen that her  brain needs. He also said that because of the meningitis, her brain was so inflamed.


When we got this news, we just broke down. We fell to our knees asking why, how, what can we do to help her and all the other questions about this infection that our daughter has. The neurologist told us that if things got worse, there wasn’t anything they could do to help our poor baby. So, besides the medication for the meningitis, there was nothing to stop the strokes or the damage it would cause in her brain. At that point, we continued praying and believing that she will be healed.


Since we’ve posted on social media about Harlen’s infection, we’ve gotten so many responses, prayers, and blessings. Harlen is currently in ICU and we are praying for the best for her to pull through! We’ve been told that Harlen has a long road to recovery and will most likely need to be here at Kapi’olani Hospital for months. She has started physical therapy to relearn how to sit up, crawl, roll, turn her head to the left and use the muscles on her left side that was recently damaged.


We have 3 other children back home on the Big Island being cared for by both our ʻohana. They are also wanting to come and visit Harlen. We are asking for help in any and all ways possible to get through this hard time. All the donations we receive will help cover expenses while we are here, the flights to travel back and forth for my husband and our other keiki and any other medical expenses that our health insurance doesn’t cover. We truly appreciate all the help we receive. Hawaiian miles can also be donated to #166539306, TRIPP GOUVEIA.


Spinal meningitis is life threatening and she is not out of the clear yet. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, any amount of help is greatly appreciated! Please continue to pray for our baby Harlen-Rosalie!


Me ke aloha pumehana,
Kaulana & Mahikenani Tripp-Gouveia