Levittown man, 21, stricken on household journey, fights for all times in Dublin ICU
For Matt Small it was to be a joyful Christmas and a reunion in Eire together with his household, however falling critically in poor health with sepsis he’s now combating for his younger life in a Dublin hospital.
“His coronary heart fee is just too quick, his blood stress is just too excessive, and he’s nonetheless on a ventilator,” mentioned his mom, Sandra, in a name Monday morning.
The Smalls, of the Quincy Hole part of Levittown, reside a nightmare, hopeful however nonetheless on edge about Matt, a 2020 graduate of Bucks County Technical Excessive Faculty.
At one level, he was so in poor health that medical doctors raised the likelihood that he may need a coronary heart transplant to outlive, mentioned his mom.
The Smalls, Sandra, her husband, Falls police Det. Greg Small, Matt and their youthful son, Mark, arrived in Dublin simply earlier than Christmas Day. They traveled to Sandra’s mom’s home in County Mayo, the place they’d spend the week celebrating. They deliberate to return Jan. 2.
However a bug was going round. Greg bought it first, then Sandra. They had been sore, achy and drained. Greg thought he was coming down with a chilly, Sandra mentioned. Then a day later she felt the identical method, and spent the day in mattress.
Each rallied, as Matt went out together with his cousin to have fun their January birthdays. He returned late.
“It was raining and he’d walked dwelling from city, so he bought out of his moist garments and hopped into mattress,” she mentioned.
The subsequent day he was feeling poorly. Aches and chills.
“I advised Matthew, ‘You bought no matter we bought,’” she mentioned.
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Friday Dec. 30, he appeared to enhance, however Matt determined to not exit to dinner with the household. As a substitute, he stayed dwelling warming himself by the fireplace. He was asleep after they returned.
A few hours later, issues turned dangerous, she mentioned.
“He got here to me late and mentioned, ‘Mother, I can’t breathe.’”
“What?”
“I can’t catch my breath,” he advised her.
It was midnight. She drove him to a hospital emergency room in Castlebar half-hour away. Twenty folks had been forward of them. She pleaded with the employees for somebody to test Matt. An hour later, they nonetheless waited.
“His lips had been blue and his fingertips had been turning purple,” she mentioned.
She went to a nurse and mentioned, “We’re gonna be doing CPR on him on the ground quickly if anyone doesn’t come and test him.”
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They took him again immediately. Issues deteriorated.
“He couldn’t speak. I needed to reply all of their questions for him,” she mentioned.
Matt’s blood oxygen was so low it triggered a employees emergency response.
“Two minutes later I had two medical doctors and three nurses dashing into the room, then dashing him to a resuscitation room. After that there have been blood assessments and hooking him as much as machines,” she mentioned.
He was taken to an intensive care unit.
“I assumed, effectively, they’ll put him on antibiotics for 48 hours and we’ll simply have to vary our flight plans from Monday to Tuesday,” she mentioned.
Then a shock.
“Inside a half hour, they got here out to me and mentioned they had been placing him on a ventilator,” she mentioned.
His lungs weren’t absorbing sufficient oxygen. Her husband and youthful son, Mark, arrived. Ten minutes later Matt was on a ventilator. It was New 12 months’s Eve. They haven’t heard him converse since.
Then got here a shocking replace from the medical doctors. He was in full organ failure. They had been placing him on a dialysis machine.
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“They advised us he had solely hours,” she mentioned. “He wasn’t pulling sufficient oxygen. They described his lungs as like your kitchen sponge when it’s soaked with water and may’t take in any extra. They mentioned that was Matthew’s lungs with an infection. The oxygen couldn’t get by.”
Matt was suffocating.
“It was minute to minute, hour to hour,” she mentioned.
All they may do was wait.
“For the following ten days, I didn’t know if I might be bringing my son dwelling in a wheelchair or in a coffin,” Sandra mentioned.
Pneumonia was the primary analysis, and it crashed his immune system. Then strep invaded. That allowed different infections in. Docs have been enjoying whack-a-mole with one an infection after one other whereas making an attempt to maintain his vitals steady. Exams revealed small pockets of pus all through his physique, as his beleaguered immune system tries to combat extra infections, Sandra mentioned.
He’s been forwards and backwards between hospitals in Castlebar and Dublin. COVID was dominated out early, as was the flu. He’d had his one-and-done COVID shot and a booster final yr. He’d gotten his flu shot for work.
“He did every part he was imagined to do,” his mom mentioned.
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It’s a curler coaster. Early on, Matt went into organ failure and was placed on dialysis. There was dialogue of a coronary heart transplant. Then he improved for a stretch of days. The ventilator got here out final week and he got here off dialysis. Then his vitals tanked, and it was again to the start, ventilator and trach. He’s been closely sedated since.
“One of many medical doctors got here to me and mentioned, ‘I do know this sounds heartless, however your son’s an anomaly. That he’s 20 years of age, he’s in excellent physique form and well being, and this actually has knocked him on his (tail). Within the medical discipline, we’re all going to be taught from this. As of as we speak, he’s listed because the sickest particular person in Eire, with his an infection ranges and coverings to maintain him alive.’”
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On Saturday Jan. 7, she returned to her mom’s home. She couldn’t eat or sleep or drink. She walked across the property.
“I saved pondering ought to I’ve taken him to the hospital sooner when he got here down with it? Would which have made a distinction? However we had the bug and bought over it, and we thought that’s all it was,” she mentioned.
In the home, she went to the mattress the place Matt had slept. His issues had been the place he left them. His issues had been as he left them.
“I placed on his jacket, and his wool hat. It had all his hair and beard oils that I normally can’t stand, however I used to be actually sucking them in so I may keep in mind, and I assumed what was I to do?”
She picked up her cellphone and posted to social media pleading for prayers for her son.
“As a result of I have to deliver him dwelling wholesome,” she mentioned.
Inside an hour she was inundated with responses. Certainly one of Matt’s highschool pals posted to him, “You have got half the Catholic Church praying for you.”
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The subsequent day, Matt’s numbers improved.
“There may be energy in prayer,” Sandra mentioned. “The medical doctors went from speaking that he had hours, and now they’re speaking about what to anticipate months down the road.”
The household of Matthew Small, organized by Michele Wallover Spadaccino
It’s nonetheless contact and go. There are not any ensures. However his youth and fitness center health are his largest property, the medical doctors have advised the Smalls. He wouldn’t survive a flight dwelling at the moment, Sandra mentioned.
A neighbor launched a GoFundMe web page in search of $50,000. Matt stays in Dublin, in an ICU, and whereas Eire has socialized drugs, “it’s solely to a degree,” Sandra mentioned.
Not solely will there be medical payments, and bodily remedy (“He’ll spend month studying how you can stroll once more,” Sandra mentioned) however residing bills are massive. Renting a automobile in Eire, because of outrageous insurance coverage prices, can run tens of 1000’s of {dollars} (or euros, relying on how you work it).
Matt went to Queen of the Universe college in Middletown. He’s an Eagle Scout from Troop 82 at Our Girl of Grace in Penndel. His venture was constructing fireplace cooking pits on the Levittown-Fairless Hills Rescue Squad in reminiscence of a member who beloved to barbecue for the crew.
He went to Tech, then to Bucks County Neighborhood School the place, final month, he obtained his associates diploma in graphic design. He works in Bristol as a designer. Once you see a U-Haul truck in Decrease Bucks, consider him, as a result of he designs their logos. He loves driving his Harley Dyna.
By way of the ordeal, he acknowledges his mom’s voice.
“Are you able to squeeze my hand,” she asks him bedside. He squeezes.
“He can hear me,” she mentioned.
Matt turned 21 on Monday. A bit of excellent information got here, Sandra mentioned.
The nurses embellished his hospital room with balloons and well-wishes.
“The nurse advised me she went to him this morning and mentioned, ‘Good morning, Matthew, I imagine it’s your birthday —– Joyful Birthday!’ And she or he mentioned he smiled.”
JD Mullane could be reached at 215-949-5745 or at [email protected]
