Brain op boy's bravery sees family jet off on dream holiday

By JACQUELINE HOGGE A GLENCORRIB family are preparing for the holiday of a lifetime this month after their seven-year-old son received a National Children of Courage Award at the weekend. Matthew Flynn has recently returned to his friends in first class at Kilroe National School after five months of rehabilitation following surgery for a rare brain condition. His family are now busy making preparations for a trip to Disneyland Paris, as part of the bravery award he received at a gala dinner organised by the Share A Dream Foundation. [private] 'It was a night of mixed emotions as we were all very proud of Matthew and how far he has come since he was first diagnosed,' said Mike Flynn, Matthew's father. Eight awards 'You think you've got problems but there were eight children in total who received bravery awards on Saturday night in Limerick and each family has been through their own torture, so it makes us grateful to be where we are now, with Matthew well and truly on the road to recovery.' Matthew was diagnosed in May of last year with Rasmussen's Encephalitis, a progressive neurological disorder that affects as few as one in one million children worldwide. The diagnosis came eight months after he first became ill with a violent seizure that resulted in him being put on a life support machine at University Hospital Galway. 'That night of the first seizure was when our world fell apart as it was terrifying not to know what was happening,' explained Matthew's mother Terri. 'They couldn't tell us what it was or how it happened, even now we don't know and probably never will. 'While they were able to stablise him in the days that followed, over the next few months the seizures became more frequent and in the months leading up to his surgery he was having as many as 20 violent seizures a day.' The family were told surgery was inevitable, as the condition would worsen as Matthew got older but the doctors recommended leaving the operation for as long as possible. 'We were told last Christmas that Matthew's condition had progressed and that surgery was his best and only hope but the doctors told us the longer we could put it off, to give his brain time to transfer the information from the left to the right side of the brain, the better his chances of recovery. 'When the time did come for surgery, they removed the left part of his brain, that normally contains speech, but luckily his speech wasn't affected, and we're so glad now we took their advice and waited.' Matthew was operated on in Temple Street Children's Hospital in July and after five weeks recovery there, he was transferred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire for 14 weeks of therapy. 'Mike and I spent the first few weeks up in Temple Street with him but we have two other sons, Stephen and Daniel, so once he was transferred to the NRH we took it in turns, with one of us here at home and the other in Dublin with Matthew,' said Terri. 'It was a very tough time for us all and even now we're only back as a family unit under the one roof for the past three weeks.' Fantastic support Mike and Terri said the fantastic support of family, friends, neighbours and the wider community had helped them through what had been an incredibly difficult time. 'We are afraid to thank people individually as so many supported us we're sure to leave someone out, but the support we got, in childminding, financial and other help really was outstanding,' said Terri. 'Times are so hard for everyone at the moment we initially resisted help from the community but it took people to say to us, it's not for you and Mike, it's for Matthew, that made us accept the generosity that was given to us by everyone.' The middle of three sons, Matthew faces a long road to full recovery with an intensive programme of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy at UHG over the coming months and years. 'He will have regular scans and check ups at Temple Street but when we think of where we were this time last year, we have come so far and we're so looking forward to the break in Disneyland and of course Christmas, which last year was a non event for us,' added Mike. 'You assume when you bring a healthy baby home from the hospital that this is going to be the case and then something like this happens, you don't know how to cope,' said Terri. 'But Matthew has coped so well with all he has been through over the past two years, never once complaining about all the journeys up to Dublin or the lengthy spells he has had in both hospitals. We're just delighted to have him home and facing a future much brighter than we feared when all this began.' [/private]