Baby Diagnosed with Terminal Brain Condition in Womb, Miracle Happens at Birth Proving DRs Wrong
We all should be incredibly thankful for the advanced level of health care available in most developed countries. Though few health systems are perfect, most allow us to recover from and survive illnesses that would’ve been fatal a mere century ago.
But even in that thankfulness, we ought to remember something important: Doctors sometimes make mistakes.
That’s a truth Drew and Ariann Corpstein know full well. What’s more, they’re glad for it.
When the couple from Ankeny, Iowa, first tried to have a child, they lost the infant to miscarriage. A terrible tragedy, to be sure.
Yet according to The Des Moines Register, their next attempt would prove even more challenging. When Ariann became pregnant in 2017, she quickly knew something was wrong with her baby.
The unborn infant had low levels of iron in his blood. The truly terrible news only came when a radiologist noticed a problem during a scan — a problem with the baby’s brain.
“We just held each other for about an hour,” Drew said. “It was one of the worst days of our lives.”
Physicians had different opinions as to the extent of the trouble, but none of them believed that the child would live long after birth. The Daily Mail stated that the official diagnosis was semi-lobar holoprosencephaly.
Put simply, the disorder means that a developing child’s brain doesn’t properly separate into left and right hemispheres. Few children with such a diagnosis make it past their second year of life.
Some doctors suggested that Ariann abort the child. But the couple’s Christian faith precluded that possibility.
Fox News reported that Ariann said, “We knew that our baby was probably not going to be born alive. Whatever happens, it’s in God’s hands.”
Indeed, when little Matthew entered the world, both parents thought he was stillborn. Drew remembered saying, “I think he’s gone,” as he raised and dropped the tiny baby’s limp arm.
Yet something miraculous happened. Matthew started to respond.
He spat out a giant lungful of fluid when placed on Ariann’s chest, then latched onto her nipple and began to nurse. He also responded to sounds and lights.
A MRI quickly revealed the truth: Matthew didn’t have semi-lobar holoprosencephaly. Instead, a malformed duct had led to fluid buildup on the brain, pushing the cranial tissue to the side.
A neurosurgeon said he believed Matthew could have an ordinary life if they could drain the fluid. Ariann recalled, “He said he performed 30 of these surgeries a year and that he believed Matthew’s brain would return to its normal position.”
That’s not to say that the tiny guy is out of the woods. Drew said in an August 19 Facebook post that he had come down with meningitis and was fighting the nasty disease.
Also, there’s still the possibility that he may face neurological deficits later in life. All that being said, though, the couple has nicknamed their infant Matthew the Great.
Ariann hopes that his troubles will remind others of one thing: “If you don’t believe in miracles, God sent us Matthew to remind us they’re real.”
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