Mum bravely speaks out after birth turns to 'nightmare'

The future for little Patrick Harris remains uncertain. He has the most beautiful eyelashes and he has the cutest babble, but he suffered life-changing injuries when he was born suddenly and unexpectedly at the family’s home.

“It’s all a blur,” Keri said, who had been excitedly been expecting the arrival of a healthy baby with her husband Andy. “I was at home and Patrick decided he wanted to make a grand entrance there and then. And then it just went from bad to worse.”

Patrick was born breech, a term used for when a baby is born bottom first instead of head first. But, being at home, Keri had no medical assistance while waiting for the emergency services to arrive.

Keri said: “I was suddenly giving birth to a breech baby with absolutely no medical intervention at all, but the thoughts of having anything wrong with the child didn’t really come into my mind.”

When the emergency services arrived, little Patrick was rushed to hospital, but it became clear something was seriously wrong and it would be several hours before Keri and Andy were allowed to see him.

It’s every parent’s nightmare - they were told to prepare for the worst.

Keri said: “The following hours and days were critical and I think the hardest part was that you couldn’t hold him, with all the wires and tubes and beeps from the machines.

“You keep hearing the words brain injury, and seizure, and you keep hearing other words you don’t understand, but nothing is really explained.

“And then all I remember is hearing the words ‘children’s hospice’, and you instantly think the worst, and that it was a place where children go to die.”

Over several weeks Patrick fought for survival, but Keri remembers feeling resentment when she was referred to Acorns Children’s Hospice, which has a hospice based in the Black Country, for the first time.

She said: “The car journey there was awkward, and we just braced ourselves. But it was like when you walk off an airplane you get hit by that wave of heat – and we walked into the hospice and just got hit with this wave of warmth and friendliness.”

Keri added: “I saw one of the nurses in a room with a child, and the nurse was chatting to them about the weather, and singing songs, and she didn’t even know I was there. I knew from that moment that I was in the right place – and that it was a magical place.”

Acorns provides rehabilitative respite to Patrick and his family, and a tailored medical plan to meet all of his needs. He enjoys sensory therapy, palliative play and the specialist nursing team supports him with pain and symptom management through hydrotherapy sessions in the hospice pool.

It was later diagnosed that Patrick had suffered Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), a brain injury caused before, during or after birth when oxygen or blood flow to the brain is reduced or stopped.

“Life without hospice care would be impossible,” Keri says. “To imagine a world where it doesn’t exist due to lack of Government funding, and where families like mine could not access this specialist support, is unthinkable.”

Mum Keri said: “The minute you come home with a poorly child, everything changes. When you come to Acorns, I know Patrick is in safe hands. What I do know for certain is that we’ll always need Acorns.”

Keri is now backing an Acorns campaign in urging the Government to secure sustainable, long-term funding for children’s hospice care, to provide reassurance for families just like hers and for children like Patrick.

Patrick’s handprint also features on a unique and powerful portrait of the Prime Minister, created by Acorns and which is made entirely using the handprints of children with life limiting or life threatening conditions, all cared for by the hospice.

Keri added: “The future of children’s hospice care is in the the hands of the Prime Minister and the Government. It’s in the hands of everyone.”

Little Patrick needs your help. To help secure the future of children’s hospice care for Patrick and other youngsters like him, add your voice to Acorns campaign by visiting savethegrant.com