Jennifer and her husband were not alarmed when their 5-year-old son, Matthew, came home from kindergarten with a stomach ache. But when they saw blood in his stool the next morning, they took Matthew to the local emergency room, where a doctor performed a blood test and discovered E. coli. The doctor determined bloodwork was concerning and alluded to additional issues. They made the decision to transfer Matthew to Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

At the hospital, Matthew’s kidneys began to fail and he was put on peritoneal dialysis, during which a machine absorbs waste from the abdominal blood vessels. “Two days later, his lungs started to fail,” his mother remembers. “He can’t breathe. The doctors rushed him to the breathing machine. In another two days, his heart had stopped and he had to be rushed to the operating room.” The doctors put Matthew on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which ultimately helped recover his heart and lungs. After a surgical interventions and immunotherapies, they were able to get his heart beating again. He also had to have most of his bowels removed because the E. coli infection had spread and killed majority of his intestines. “He was rushed to the operation room so many times!” Jennifer says.

The night after his bowel removal, Matthew started to have intense bleeding. Doctors and surgeons informed his parents that he was losing blood so rapidly, he might not survive the night. As doctors and nurses fought to stop the bleeding, his parents stood outside the room, praying. Jennifer remembers that a hospital security employee came over to comfort her and hold her hand.

In an effort to stop the bleeding, doctors asked if they could perform an operation to reopen Matthew’s bowels. The doctor cautioned that the procedure could either work and stop the bleeding, or Matthew would not make it through. Jennifer’s husband immediately said, “We trust you.”

The surgery was successful.  

Prior to his surgery to stop the bleeding, the doctors asked Jennifer to come into the room and do a neuro test to see if Matthew could respond. His mother asked if Matthew could give them a thumbs up. With shaking hands, he managed a weak thumbs up and was also able to wiggle his leg when asked to make a kicking movement.

Matthew’s journey has not been easy. It has had its setbacks, including another bleeding issue and a stroke that paralyzed him on his left side. But there has also been significant progress. His heart miraculously began beating by itself, no longer requiring the ECMO machine. His inflammation went down, no longer requiring the dialysis machine. Matthew was even able to get off the breathing machine. Jennifer recalls, “His doctor was so happy that he did a spin!”

Matthew continues to mend from his stroke, and his mother is hopeful he will soon be able to go back to playing piano and doing the things he loved. He was able to play “Jingle Bells” with his music therapist just in time for Christmas. Most recently, Matthew was able to be transferred to a local rehabilitation center to continue rehab for his stroke. He has been able to stand all by himself for one to two minutes and started to be able to open his left hand!

This tragedy also brought him a lifelong disability — an extra short bowel — which means intravenous (IV) nutrition dependency and numerous hospital visits a year. But since they have witnessed so many miracles, they are confident one day Matthew will be able to wean IV nutrition and eat by his own mouth again. Jennifer says, “There is still a long way to go, but I trust the doctors. We know Johns Hopkins has the best doctors in the country. The Children’s Center is a place that brought hope — all the doctors, nurses, the ECMO technicians and the security lady, they are angels to us. They are the angels God brought to us.”