Hope Harrison, 2, is the epitome of her first name. Since she is usually smiling and giggling, it’s hard to believe that she was never expected to be born alive.
“She makes people feel good,” said her mom, Rachel Medoff Harrison.
Rachel and her husband Bobby learned their fourth child had a chromosomal disorder called Edwards syndrome, or Trisomy 18, a condition that causes severe developmental delays due to an extra chromosome 18. There is no treatment and it is usually fatal before birth or within the first year of life.
“We found out at 20 weeks,” said Rachel.
Doctors offered early induction, which basically means terminating the pregnancy.
“Just by the grace of God, just in the nick of time, before we had decided that we were going to do early induction, I felt her,” said Rachel. “And I was like, ‘Nope. You know what, I can feel her. I know she’s really there.' And I did have a Doppler that I listened to her heartbeat.”
Her family agreed to let nature take its course.
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On her due date, Hope came on her own but Rachel didn’t know how long her baby girl would be alive after her birth.
“Bobby was holding me crying, and I was holding her crying,” said Rachel. “It was just crying for her to just please, please, please, breathe. Breathe. And she did. She took that breath.”
Hope survived birth, but her parents said the challenges kept coming: Hope survived liver cancer, pneumonia twice, a hernia, three holes in her heart, a club foot, feeding difficulties, breathing difficulties, sight issues and hearing loss.
“She has it all. We catch it all, we nip it in the bud and she powers through,” said Rachel.
After outlasting her life expectancy, Bobby and Rachel are focused on giving Hope a full life as long as they have her. She goes to the lake, takes scooter rides with her dad and her family can’t count how many baseball games she’s attended.
“We always joke that it’s baseball dirt that keeps her alive,” said Rachel.
Hope is the so-called “angel in the outfield” for her three older brothers’ baseball teams. But Hope, at 2-years-old, still struggled with low muscle tone and wasn’t making strong movements until her parents downloaded a $4.99 app.
“He texted me. He’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve got to see this. She is on fire,” said Rachel.
Rachel said the app OptoDrum somehow helped one side of Hope’s brain finally communicate with the other side. In an effort to keep finding new ways to help Hope, their family drove 10 hours from their home in Las Cruces, New Mexico to Irving’s Cerebrum Health Centers.
The Harrisons also started a foundation to help raise money for Trisomy 18 research, hope-full.org, while offering this advice to parents facing a Trisomy 18 diagnosis.
“There are no wrong answers. It’s all gonna be personal,” said Bobby. “I mean, if early-induction is your choice that’s not a wrong answer. If you let nature play its course, it’s not a wrong answer.”
Meanwhile, the family is continuing to celebrate the life of their little girl who’s bringing joy to the lives of most who cross her path -- simply by being Hope.
