When my middle child was born, Aran, who barely weighed more than 2 kilos, I was surprised to see how tiny he was. So much that it gave me the feeling that I could take it with one hand.
It soon grew and this sensation disappeared, but not in the case of Matthew, a baby that was born very small and that, seven months later, it still is.
He was born weighing just 500 grams
His name is Matthew Riddle III, and had to be born at 28 weeks gestation because doctors realized that he was not growing properly.
In order to save his life, they induced labor prematurely and that's how Matthew was born, with just 500 grams of weight, after what they considered a case of delayed intrauterine growth.
However, in the neonatal intensive care unit doctors saw that something was wrong. Matthew still did not grow, and they saw that his brain did not increase in size. Given this situation, the prognosis was serious: the baby would not live long.
Until they saw that it was a rare disease
Almost three months after birth the definitive diagnosis arrived. Matthew suffers from a rare disease called 'microcephalic primordial osteodisplastic dwarfism type II', also known as primordial dwarfism.
This changed the situation a lot making the forecast very different. The doctors were able to tell the parents that Matthew would walk, that he would talk and that I could even go to school. The only thing, that would be extraordinarily small, and that because of his syndrome, he would always have to live between his home and the medical controls and interventions.
With seven months looks like a newborn
Now Matthew is seven months old and many people think he is a newborn baby, seeing him so tiny. In fact, barely weighs 1,800 kg, less than what a term newborn weighs. Less than my son weighed the middle when he surprised me with his small size of late premature.
This month they had to operate to prevent strokes, in what is the continuation of a life that began linked to medical treatments and thus must continue to be able to progress in the best possible way.
His family wanted to explain his story to make the world aware of the existence of so-called rare diseases, their specific condition, and to take advantage and ask for support in their campaign at GoFundMe.
From here, wish Matthew had the happiest life possible With the support of his family and friends.
