Mattingly Medical Fund

Hello, my name is Susan Bauer, and I, my husband Keith, and my daughter Kelly Skarshaug are trying to raise money for my daughter Rachel Mattingly and her unborn son.

On September 29th, Rachel and her husband Matt learned that baby boy Mattingly has some serious medical conditions that will require complex medical interventions upon delivery and within the first year of his life. Since then, Rachel has traveled up to Riley and met with a medical team at their Fetal Center to confirm and learn more about the diagnoses, and a plan has been put in place for delivery in Indianapolis.

What we know right now is that baby Mattingly has a double outlet right ventricle with dextro-transposition of the great arteries, which means that his aorta and his pulmonary artery aren’t connected to his heart correctly. They’re switched in position, and they’re both connected to the right ventricle rather than the aorta being attached to the left ventricle where it normally should be. Along with that, the baby has an atrioventricular septal defect, which means that he has a hole in his ventricular septum, and he has a hole in between his tricuspid and mitral valves, which should normally be distinct from one another, not a single (or shared) valve.

Additionally, the baby has something called heterotaxy, which is a condition where many organs in the body may be formed abnormally, in the wrong position, or possibly missing. What we know so far in baby Mattingly’s case is that his stomach is flipped and on the right side of his body instead of the left, his liver is midline, and he has complex heart defects. Based on his type of heterotaxy (right atrial isomerism), there’s also a high likelihood that he won’t have a spleen, but more imaging is needed once he’s born in order to determine whether other organs are affected.

Lastly, the baby is small for gestational age and has been classified as growth restricted, so Rachel is meeting twice a week with her high risk doctor to closely monitor his growth and placental function and will travel up to Riley again on December 19th.

With all of these concerns, some of the baby’s care plan once he’s born is a bit unknown. For the time being, we know that if the baby makes good growth approaching delivery, then the likely plan will be for Rachel to be induced between 37-39 weeks at Riley, and then the baby will have a surgical procedure done called pulmonary artery banding when he is between 2-4 weeks old. This surgery would hopefully help prevent too much blood flowing to the lungs, which will help the baby have time to get a bit bigger before he would need his major open heart surgery to correct his defects around 9 months of age.

This is a time of extreme uncertainty and stress for the Mattingly family. To try to help alleviate some of the financial concerns, we’re hoping friends and family would be willing to contribute even small donations to help the Mattinglys as they face upcoming medical bills, lodging costs, food expenses, and travel to and from Indianapolis.

Even if you’re unable to donate, we would very much appreciate your prayers for their sweet little boy as he will have a big fight ahead of him in his first year of life. Thank you!