Matthew S. - Quilt Finished in 2009

Born: July 22, 1993

Illness: Transverse Myelitis and Anoxic brain injury

Matthew S.'s Story

Written by Matthew's mom Dona in February 2009

Matthew is 15 years old and was a viable young man prior to the onset of his illness. He loved to hang out with Dad and listen to rock music and go to concerts with him. He also occasionally joined his Dad and Ryan when they went fishing on Lake Murray. He volunteered at the Town Theater in Columbia as a lighting technician. He enjoyed watching a handful of TV shows. In 2004 he achieved earning his black belt in Taekwondo. His favorite foods are cheese burgers and peanut butter.

He has a 13 yr. old brother Ryan. We lived in NJ for 10 years and moved to SC in January of 2007. Matthew loved living in SC and was just beginning to get acclimated to his new environment.

Matthew was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit on Sunday, October 19th 2008 with Transverse Myelitis which cut off his breathing thus causing a severe brain injury.  On that morning the signal transmission from the brain to diaphragm (breathing center) was interrupted.  Status epilepticus followed (which lasted for 9 hours). This caused an extensive anoxic brain injury. He is completely unable to breath on his own, he cannot move at all, and we are dealing now with the auspices of cognition. After 2 months in Palmetto Health PICU (great place, great people), Matthew was flown to the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, the nation's leading spinal cord and brain injury hospital.

Recent developments have shown that Matthew has regained sensations in his legs (there are three people who swear he moved a foot). We are shifting focus to the brain injury (rather than focusing on the spinal cord injury as before). What this means? Who knows? We are reminded by every doctor we speak with that a poor MRI does not mean he will not have recovery. There are many patients walking and talking with horrible MRIs and others completely debilitated with almost normal MRIs. "Do not correlate structure with function" is what they remind us of.

Matthew is expected to stay in Baltimore until mid-March. It is anticipated he will return to South Carolina dependant on the ventilator and requiring 24/7 care.