Portsmouth family’s bid to raise £2,000 for paediatric unit in memory of ‘unique’ baby boy

Katie Keeling, of Hilsea, is fundraising for Southampton General Hospital’s paediatric high dependency unit in memory of her son.

Harrison William Albert Keeling was born on March 26 of this year via emergency caesarean at Queen Alexandra Hospital, and at only four days old had to have an emergency tracheostomy.

He was rushed to Southampton General, where the family found out that their little boy had a very rare condition called Wieacker-Wolff syndrome – a neurodevelopmental disorder – as well as a range of other conditions including arthrogryposis, seizures, a cleft palate, clubfeet, and a shrinking brain.

He also had three hernias, fought three rounds of sepsis, and was fed through a gastrostomy.

The family were told that Harrison’s brain was shrinking, due to a cause still unknown, and doctors did not know how long he was going to live.

Katie, 37, says she wants to raise some money for the Southampton Paediatric High Dependency Unit (PHDU) in appreciation of the care staff gave to Harrison, who died in his mum’s arms on July 24.

The full-time mum has been married to Warren, 45, a FedEx driver, for three years, although they have been together for nine, and have two other children together - seven-year-old Ethan and baby Megan.

Katie said: ‘I want to raise money to support PHDU, as they did so much for us and helped us towards the end of his life.

‘It’s also in memory of him and to thank them. Anything that is raised goes towards the unit he was on.’

It was important to Katie to have her three children christened together, so a team of five nurses carrying three oxygen tanks, a suction machine, a ventilator, and a SATs monitor worked together to get Harrison to the hospital’s chapel.

Katie said: ‘It was a very emotional day but I held back the tears. I managed to take Harrison down to the chapel in his pushchair rather than his hospital cot.’

The family now spend a lot of time talking about Harrison, and hope to raise money for the hospital as a way of remembering their little boy.

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Katie said: ‘We have good days and bad days, especially Ethan. He keeps asking ‘are we going to see him again’.

‘Harrison was so content, and when the doctors used to ask me how he was doing, I would say it was ‘Harrison being Harrison’.

‘He couldn’t cry or make any sounds so it was very hard to tell if he was in pain. We had to go with the faces he was pulling.

‘Harrison was so unique. They have never had a case like Harrison before.

‘One nurse called him her peaky little blinder while another nurse said how absolutely incredible and strong he was and that he inspired so many people.’

So far, the family have raised more than £700 towards their goal, which they hope to hit by the end of October.

Visit gofundme.com/f/Paediatric-high-dependency-unit.