NEED TO KNOW
- Harvey Morrison was born with severe scoliosis and needed a spinal surgery that was “a matter of life and death”
- His surgery was constantly rescheduled and, at one point, he was even unknowingly removed from the hospital’s waiting list
- Despite getting the surgery years later, Harvey died in July at age 9. His parents are now seeking justice in hopes that no other families go through the same situation
A couple is hoping to raise awareness after their 9-year-old son died after waiting years for a life-saving scoliosis surgery.
When Harvey Morrison was born in 2016, he was diagnosed with scoliosis — a condition where the spine curves, often appearing as an S or C shape. It can cause symptoms like severe pain, change in posture and difficulty breathing. The condition was present before birth, and by the time he was 1, Harvey’s parents Gillian and Stephen Morrison were told that his scoliosis was severe.
“We were told his ribs had already started to crush his lungs and that controlling the progressions of his scoliosis was a matter of life and death for him,” Gillian wrote on social media. “We had to wait as he was too small to get intervention yet.”
The family — from Dublin, Ireland — moved forward monitoring Harvey’s scoliosis over the years. However, his condition progressed and left him in and out of the hospital with several complications, including a partially collapsed lung, pneumonia and more.
In February 2022, Gillian and Stephen were informed that Harvey’s scoliosis was “deteriorating,” so he was added to the “urgent” surgery list with a spine curvature of 75°. Despite the life-saving surgery being set for August 2022, the concerned parents claim they “got radio silence from the hospital.”
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Gillian expressed her frustration with Harvey not getting his surgery on Instagram.
“Finding it hard to put into words just how much I currently hate our health service — both public and private. The whole system just makes you feel so defeated at times,” she wrote in October 2022.
“I can actually *see* him physically deteriorating and yet I’m stonewalled,” she continued. “Hospitals push our appointments and we just always have to go with it 🙃I just wish it was easier to get our children the support they need.”
Gillian went on to explain that Harvey finally got a new surgery date scheduled for April 2023. However, a week before the day of the surgery, the family learned it was “cancelled without explanation.”
Later that year, the mom of three shared a video of her son struggling to breathe and said they still had no new surgery date despite Harvey’s lung function worsening.
“Heartbroken, frustrated and angry at the lack of care for Harvey and so many children like him,” she wrote. “Time and time again seeing my baby boy struggling to just breathe, how is it fair? 💔”
In February 2024, Gillian claims she contacted Children’s Health Ireland — the nation’s largest pediatric hospital — to confirm that Harvey was still on the active waiting list, and she claims she was assured he was. However, after following up in August 2024, she was allegedly informed that Harvey had been removed from the waiting list without their knowledge.
“To this day, I still don’t have answers as to who made that decision, why or when,” she said.
Gillian then decided to take her son to a surgeon at a private clinic and he was added to that doctor’s waiting list. Finally, Harvey underwent the scoliosis surgery in late November 2024. However, by that time, his curvature had worsened to 130°, a point that could not be fully corrected.
After surgery, Gillian said Harvey seemed to be “thriving,” but his health took a turn for the worse this year and he was hospitalized on July 26.
Three days later, on the morning of July 29, Harvey died at age 9.
“He spent so much of his life waiting on this surgery,” Gillian tells PEOPLE in a statement. “His whole childhood was spent waiting for things to get better and he only got eight months after his surgery before his life ended. It’s all so incredibly unjust.”
Gillian noted that due to legal purposes she can’t comment on the “extent the massive delays impacted his passing,” but she stressed that Harvey’s family believes it had an “enormous impact” on his quality of life.
Stephen, however, expressed his frustration online and claimed his son’s death is due to Children’s Health Ireland allegedly removing his child from its waiting list.
“Let me be very clear, Harvey died because of @CHI_Ireland’s and government incompetence and ableism,” he wrote on X on Aug. 4. “I know people are trying to give us space but we are back to our fight tomorrow. And we will not rest until our beautiful son gets the justice he deserves. #JusticeForHarvey.”
Children’s Health Ireland told The Irish Times that it could not comment on individual cases but that waiting lists are “constantly changing, as children and young people have their surgeries and come off the list, new patients are added.”
The hospital added that “important progress is being made every month.”
PEOPLE reached out to Children’s Health Ireland for comment, but did not receive a response.
Gillian and Stephen have documented Harvey’s health battle publicly over the years, hoping to raise awareness. They are now vowing to continue their fight in hopes of seeking justice and ensuring that no other families go through the same.
“Harvey’s story and his fight for access to surgery and delays were already quite public before his death and once he passed we vowed to continue our advocacy in his memory,” Gillian tells PEOPLE. “So many children and families around Ireland are in similar situations and it’s both unacceptable and heartbreaking. If we can use Harvey’s story to see true change and improvement…then we feel that’s a good way to honor him and his memory. We don’t want other families to have to face what we have.”
Harvey’s journey has also received national attention, even leading to the involvement of Mary Lou McDonald, a prominent Irish politician.
McDonald pointed to politician Simon Harris, who made a pledge in 2017 when he was minister for health that no child would wait more than four months for scoliosis treatment. She said Harvey and his family were unfortunately “failed” by the system.
“The State has completely failed this bravest, strongest and most courageous boy and his family, first by the intolerable delays in his treatment, and then by your failure to follow through on a commitment made directly to me, and by extension, to them,” she said, the Irish Examiner reported. “This inaction is both shameful and unacceptable.”
As the family continues their fight, Gillian announced on Wednesday, Aug. 13 that she and Stephen are set to meet with Harris to discuss their journey and work toward improvements.
“We will never see true #JusticeForHarvey as Harvey never should have died and that will *always* be unjust,” Gillian said on X. “However there are hundreds, maybe thousands of children continuing to be failed by @CHI_Ireland and this government and the best type of justice we can hope for is that this never repeats itself.”
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