Matthew John's Journey

On July 11, our son, Matthew, had a very traumatic birth at 27 weeks. We went to the hospital 2 hours before his birth, because Vanessa was having what we now know were contractions (this is our first child, so we weren’t sure what was going on). However, we were told they weren’t contractions, and sent home. Two hours of awful pain later, Vanessa’s water broke, the cord prolapsed, and we were rushed to the hospital. He was born with no pulse, but was revived after 17 minutes of resuscitation efforts. We were told he might not make it through the night, and that if he did, he would likely have severe brain damage. Many test were done on Matthew to determine the quality of his brain and every test has shown that his brain is fine- no bleeds and no damage on the 2 different MRIs that he has gotten done! Fast forward to today, his motor skills are good (though his movements can be a little stiff), and he’s breathing on his own, but his gag is hard to detect, and he doesn’t seem to swallow, suck and his cough is minimal. This may seem minimal but on the contrary, this puts his life at great risk! Anything as small as a cold can greatly endanger his life if he is unable to cough or swallow! He’s still in the NICU, and will likely require a gtube before coming home. Although his EEG and two MRIs were clear,  we’re assuming there must be some damage that’s just not showing up on scans. We plan to pursue some unconventional therapies that have been shown to help in these instances as soon as he’s released. However, those therapies are not covered by insurance and therefore must be paid out of pocket! We’re grateful to have this community  of people to love and pray for us! This community has made the burden of this trial so much lighter!  We are thankful for any help that you can provide to help make our little boy’s life as normal as possible! 


~Matt & Vanessa Boyer



Matt & Vanessa Boyer