Matthew's Transplant Journey

I wanted to share some information with you all about his life that led up to this moment. Matthew has never had a normal life. He was born with a congenital heart defect. At 3 days old, the pediatrician found a heart murmur. Matthew was airlifted to Atlanta and was diagnosed with mitral valve stenosis. He had a valvuloplasty to help the valves pump the blood when he was a week old. At 3 years old, he had his first open heart surgery. He was discharged after a couple of weeks. He came home and was not acting himself. His pericardium sac was full of blood (cardiac tamponade)and he was airlifted back to Atlanta and the blood had to drained with a needle. The drs told my mom if she would have waited 30 more minutes he wouldn’t have survived. His second open heart surgery occurred at 10 years old. Originally, he was going to only have his mitral valve replaced with a mechanical valve. When the surgeon went in, he noticed the aorta valve needed to be replaced too. After the surgery, he had two mechanical valves. He had a rough time recovering after this surgery. He developed pneumonia and suffered from terrible nose bleeds. He was hospitalized for about 3 months. At 14, he had his 3rd open heart surgery to replace both mechanical valves. He had the same problems as he did when he was 10. He also had another problem. He had too much vancomycin in his system and his organs started to fail. There have been other complications along the way beginning at birth - now such as suffering from horrible nosebleeds (he has had his nose cauterized SEVERAL times throughout the years) to the point where he has had blood transfusions because he lost so much blood and then him having reactions to the blood transfusion, etc. Now, he has just had a heart transplant and is in ICU. A huge difference this time is Matt doesn’t have his daddy with him this go around. His daddy passed away in January from Covid-19. He is missing him dearly esp during these difficult times. Also, the last thing my mom should have to worry about right now is bills and food.

My mom will be in Atlanta for 3 months and that means she will not be able to work. Then they will have to travel to Atlanta bi weekly for a a year for Matt to receive heart caths to make sure his body is accepting the heart and not trying to reject it. This is going to be a very long journey for Matthew and we are so very appreciative for all of your support. All proceeds will go towards travel expenses, bills, and food!

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