Matthew Van Daff from Villa Park, IL is a two year old boy born with a brain injury. Due to a lack of oxygen during the last days of pregnancy, labor or delivery, he suffered severe brain damage. He was immediately transported from Elmhurst Hospital to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Lutheran General Hospital where he spent the first 104 days of his life.
Because of his brain damage, Matthew has been diagnosed with Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy, Chronic Lung Disease, and seizures. He has a trachestomy to help him breathe and is fed through a g-button (a tube surgically inserted into his stomach). He is severely developmentally delayed and was just fitted for a wheelchair.