Harlan Brierley

June 30th 2017, Harlan our beautiful recently healthy 14-month-old little boy became very poorly with flu-like symptoms. He had a temperature of 39.5, high heart rate, vomiting, and just generally not himself, very very sleepy! We rushed him to A&E where he was put straight on oxygen, intubated and ventilated and sent off to another hospital on the mainland from our home on the Isle of Wight .

He underwent many procedures in PICU including several antibiotics through an IV, a chest drain, copious amounts of fluids, adrenaline for his heart. He was experiencing multiple organ failure, on a dialysis machine to help his liver and kidneys and eventually Harlan was put onto ECMO life support machine to do the job of his heart and lungs as he was just too poorly to cope by himself.

He was then transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital where his life support caused him to suffer a stroke effecting the left side of his tiny body, making no progress we were left in pieces and utter desperation of a miracle, Harlan was just “stable”

Days passed and Harlan made tiny yet promising progress. His blood pressure improved, his heart started beating a little harder and that’s when we knew our gorgeous little man was starting to fight back! He made tiny baby steps each day right up until mid July he was taken off the ECMO machine and transferred back to Southampton hospital for recovery! He was successfully extubated a few days after and sent to a children’s ward!

Harlan made a miraculous recovery when all odds were stacked against him, Great Ormond Street Hospital saved our little boy even though nobody else thought possible given the way our little boy was presented to them. After just a few weeks of physio our little boy is now home 1st September 2017 and just 1 week after arriving, he is walking and happy and bouncing about once again. To say that we were very lucky would be an understatement and I’d just like to share that anybody going through a similar situation with a loved one, have faith and stay strong because miracles really really do happen and can happen! Every day I look at my strong little fighter and think about everything he has over come and wish I could share with the world how grateful we are to still have him here!
He is a true sepsis warrior!!!!

Source: Lacey & Jack - Parents