Happy New Year and An Update on Matthew
Happy New Year to you all. We hope that you enjoyed the holidays and that 2015 has started with health, happiness and joy.
Since our last update, Matthew is back to his old self - actually better
than his old self if you can believe that. He quickly returned to half
days and then full days back in school and his food restrictions were
lifted so now he can have pizza with us on Friday night! Despite the
illnesses running rampant, Matthew stayed healthy! So healthy in fact
that he called from the nurse's office just this week to say his legs
hurt. Not wanting to take any chances I went to pick him up. Upon
returning home, Matthew admitted that his legs really did not hurt that
much but that he missed me and wanted to be with me. After spending two
months together, he just missed me. You can't have a better outcome
than that.
Upcoming Events
Things are moving in to high gear already with several groups running pillow projects and many plans in the works for this year.
We have several groups working on preparing pillows for the pillow
project. We are so grateful for their help and support. Our goal is to
send 500 pillows to Columbia throughout 2015. The Sherman School
pillow project will take place on February 24th so mark your calendars.
Also, our friends at the Knights of Columbus and St. Francis Xavier
Church in New Milford have generously offered to sponsor a hockey day
with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on March 15th at the Webster Bank Arena
in Bridgeport. More information is listed below and all proceeds will
go directly to Matthew's Heart of Hope. A great day for the family. We
hope you can join us.
All the best to you all!
Monday, January 5, 2015
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Wrap Up 2014 - Looking At 2015
Hi everyone!
It has been a few months since I blogged so I hope you will
forgive me.
Update on Matthew
As you all know, based on testing back in July, Matthew was
identified as having to go through another surgery to correct a narrowing of
his Fontan site. For several months we
went back and forth trying to decide if we would go through a full open heart
surgery or if we would just put a stent in to widen the narrowed section. After many consultations, we determined that
the full open-heart surgery was our best option. And thank goodness we made that
decision. Not only were they able to
repair the narrowed Fontan site but they were able to fix several other things
that needed attention. If we had not
made that decision it was certain that we would have been back in surgery at a
later date. God is good. Thank you to Dr. Bacha, Dr. Snyder and
everyone on Matthew’s team who supported us through this difficult time. We will give you a bit more detail later on
to share with you some of the highlights.
During this process we experienced something very special. October 1st started like any other day -
getting the boys on the bus and settling in to my daily to do list. I
knew that the Danbury News-Times was printing a front page article that morning
about Matthew's Hearts of Hope grant recipient Dr. Hannah Fraint and the 3D
heart she was able to create using MHOH grant funding. Little did I know
that this Danbury based article would reach further than we could have ever
dreamed.
Dr. Fraint created a 3D heart model using an MRI image and
a new cutting edge 3D printing process.
This process enabled her to replicate the heart of a baby with a very
severe Congenital Heart Defect (you know him as "Baby S").
Normally, the surgeon cannot plan in advance how to approach the repair until
he has opened the chest and can actually see the severity of the
defect. Having access to the model prior to surgery, the surgeon
was able to plan out his approach and completely change the entire
surgery. Not only did it save "Baby S" from another surgery, it
gave him a normal life expectancy!
The story appeared as expected and I was so happy to know that
area residents could read about the impact we were able to make with one of our
grants. What I did not know at the time was that the Danbury News-Times
article (click here to read New-Times) caught the
eye of a reporter from the Independent in the UNITED KINGDOM (click here to read Independent). After that, the story took on a life of its own. Within a few days Matthew's Hearts of Hope
received calls from news outlets in Japan, Croatia and even my family back in
Ireland were calling to say the story reached the Irish Examiner (click here to read Irish Examiner). It was such an incredible feeling knowing that people
around the world were hearing about the impact CHD research is making for
children in the US and that Matthew's Hearts of Hope played a part.
But there is more! Ultimately, the story ended up on CBS
This Morning and CNBC. Dr. Bacha who performed the surgery had the
opportunity to share how this simple 3D model has completely changed the way
they were able to do the surgery on children with severe Congenital Heart
Defects. Truly a moment to remember.
While we were anxiously awaiting Matthew’s surgery date, when we
received a call that the New Milford Wave teachers and the New Milford police
were hosting a charity basketball game and they wanted to donate the proceeds
to Matthew’s Hearts of Hope.
Unfortunately, Matthew would be three days post op but graciously
accepted their kind offer. Mike, Michael
and Ryan attended the game and graciously accepted their generous
donation. Everyone signed a big card for
Matthew that was waiting for him when he got home!
 |
| Our Brave Little Man |
Monday,
November 10th Matthew was taken into surgery at Columbia. As always, the many hours of waiting and
praying were overwhelming. But, we felt
the love and prayers of everyone around us and it really carried us through.
Matthew’s
surgery went well and his post-op recovery was amazing. Even his doctors were thrilled at how well
and how quickly he recovered. He was out
of ICU in 2 days, home in 1 week and was back to school three weeks after
that. It was truly amazing to see how
much better he was feeling even as compared to before the surgery. And, despite the illnesses running rampant, Matthew
stayed healthy into the New Year! So healthy in fact that he called from
the nurse's office just this week to say his legs hurt. Not wanting to
take any chances I went to pick him up. Upon returning home, Matthew
admitted that his legs really did not hurt that much but that he missed me and
wanted to be with his mom. After spending two months together, he just
missed me. You can't have a better outcome than that.
Feeling the Love from Westfield State University
Here is a note from LauraBeth explaining their organization and how they came to make their donation to MHOH:
"As the Westfield State University Dance Company, we are the largest student run club on campus. We are composed of a student executive board along with 110 dancers. For each show we perform, we collect donations for a charity. This fall we were thrilled to donate $1,000 to Matthews Hearts of Hope! The show consisted of a variety of student choreographed dances and the most heartwarming part of the event was when Matthew's story was shared. This resulted in an outpouring of generous donations! We love to perform and make a difference in the lives of others!
As the co-president of the company I was very excited to be able to donate to this wonderful cause! I attached a picture of our company and I can't wait to see you and Matthew soon!"
Coming Up in 2015
We have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. We have pillow projects, the Danbury Whaler’s hockey game on February 22nd and our friends at the Knights of Columbus in conjunction with St. Xavier Church in New Milford who are hosting a hockey event with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on March 15th.
Hope to see you all soon!
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