“We are very grateful that Matthew received such excellent care at Children's Specialized Hospital. It's because of all the fantastic people there that Matthew is thriving once again.”
Matthew Yautz one day started to feel differently than he had. Slowly, his attitude towards school, sports and everyday life started to change. He was nine and a half years old and feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Matthew started experiencing terrible headaches. At first his family assumed the headaches came from a recent orthodontist visit, but the pain kept increasing. By the end of January he was completely out of it and not acting like himself.
One night, Matthew’s parents woke up to him having a seizure. He was rushed to the emergency room. After describing his symptoms he immediately went in for a CT scan which revealed he had a brain tumor. A biopsy showed the tumor was a “stage 1 periodic astrocytoma” located on the left side of his brain. There was so much fluid in his brain, doctors immediately placed temporary drains to relieve his headaches. After enough fluid was removed, Matthew underwent the delicate brain surgery to remove the tumor.
Going into the surgery, his family knew there were risks of brain damage because of where the tumor was located. After the surgery, Matthew was showing weakness on the right side of his body. He couldn’t walk or use his right arm and he had trouble speaking because of the weakness at the right side of his mouth. Once Matthew was medically stable he transferred to the inpatient rehabilitation program at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick.
Matthew received physical, occupational and speech therapy daily. His sessions were for an hour a day. In the beginning it was hard for him, but once he started to notice improvement he was motivated to keep going.
“Matthew was such a fun patient! Matthew and his family were extremely dedicated to his treatment and carryover of recommended strategies,” said Kendra Benitez, Matthew’s occupational therapist.
Once Matthew started to improve, his therapy sessions increased to two hours a day. He enjoyed working with his doctor and therapists. Matthew was determined to get all of his movements back.
“One of the greatest sights was seeing my son walk again, after the surgery he was mainly in a wheelchair. To see him walk, without any assistance, for the first time was remarkable. After walking, he took a flight of stairs without any supervision. We’re sure it was the high quality of care he received here at Children’s Specialized Hospital that helped him recovery so quickly, that and his determined spirit,” said Stephen Yautz, Matthew’s father.
Soon after walking again, Matthew moved back home. He was eager to start school again with his friends. For the first two months back home he was homeschooled, but he was determined to go back to school before the year’s ended. In May he started to go back to school with partial days, but he still wanted more, and sure enough he finished the last month of school full time and with the rest of his fourth grade class.
Now, Matthew is playing basketball on his school’s 5th and 6th grade basketball team. He finished last year running cross country, this spring he is starting to run track and his grades are back up to what they were.
“We are very grateful that Matthew received such excellent care at Children's Specialized Hospital. It's because of all the fantastic people there that Matthew is thriving once again. Thank you,” said Stephen Yautz.