A little about me...

My parents, Shari and Kevin Matson, were going to have their first child. They were 26 years old and ready for this exciting new chapter in their lives.


I was born on October 2, 1982, as a healthy baby weighing in at a whopping 8lbs and 1oz.

My first routine check-up was at 6 weeks, with a very friendly doctor, Virgilio Pilapil. Dr. Pliapil happened to be a pediatric cardiologist. While doing the check-up he heard a heart murmur, but said that nothing was wrong and that heart murmurs were very common.

Everything was normal for the next 2 years of my life. I learned to crawl, walk, and run. All the normal stuff you do by two years of age, I had done. There were no major symptoms that anything was wrong.

In August of 1984, my family added another addition- my little sister, Gretchen. I tagged along with Gretchen for her 8 week check-up. Dr. Pilapil was also her doctor. Dr. Pilapil wanted to listen to my heart while I was there. It sounded like a washing machine. He did an EKG and then told my mom that she should take me to the cardiologist at one of the hospitals in Springfield. My mom, in the confusion, went to the wrong hospital.

When she made it to the right hospital they did an ultrasound, where they found a hole in my heart. I had two monthly check-ups and then was scheduled to have a catheterization in February. After the catheterization my parents were told that I needed surgery, but that they didn’t know the extent of my problem. The doctors in Springfield made contact with the doctor’s at Chicago Children’s Memorial Hospital. I still had no outward physical symptoms. Since I was not considered an emergency, my scheduled surgery was in July. My parents had to wait five agonizing months until their 2 year old would have surgery.



Joann Nieves(right), I met at CHD lobby day,
gave the pre-surgery presentation to my
parents. Joanne Mora(left)



I went in for my monthly check-ups in Springfield, which happened to be a teaching hospital. All the interns liked listening to my heart because it was so unique.

After the 5 painstaking months were over July 7th had arrived. I had to undergo some testing and my parents took two days of classes to prepare them for my surgery. They were told what I would look like and what to generally expect after my surgery. They were given presentations by nurses and doctors and shown a child recently out of surgery. This was extremely helpful because the sight of a child after open heart surgery is very hard to take in, but it makes it a little easier if the first child seen like this is not your child.

When going into surgery the doctors were pretty sure I had partial anomalous pulmonary venous return with an atrial septal defect, but didn’t know the full details. They would find out when they cut me open. I was taken in at 5:30 a.m. They put me on a heart and lung machine. After the first half hour of surgery my parents were told one pulmonary vein was going into my heart the wrong way, the next half hour 2, the next half hour 3. I had 3 out of 4 pulmonary veins going into the wrong side of my heart with a hole ( Atrial Septal Defect) thankfully draining some of the oxygenated blood to the other side of my heart. My heart was more than 3 times the size it was supposed to be. The surgery took three to four hours. I was taken off of the respirator within minutes of surgery.

After surgery, my mom said that I was a yellowish, greenish color. She said that I looked like a breathing cadaver with bandages and IV’s coming out of both feet and hands and a chest tube. I was with a young baby in this first intensive care room. There were nurses at pretty much all times in this room and I was only allowed to be visited by two people at a time. My burly uncle had to walk out of the room and cry after he saw me.

At the end of these two days my chest tube was removed. Doctors recommended that my parents not be in the room for this. Even though they weren’t in the room, they could still hear me screaming as the tube was ripped out since my skin had already grown to it.

I spent 36 hours in the next room with three other kids. After this I was put in a regular room. The same uncle who had been crying and couldn’t stand to see me, mustered up the strength to come back and visit. When he came to the room I wasn’t there. Of course the worst was assumed. I was, however, in the playroom being scolded by the nurses for moving chairs.

I was sent home after five days with just tape on my chest. The first time I saw Dr. Pilapil again you would have thought I saw the devil himself, but he wasn’t offended.

Thanks to the research on congenital heart defects that went before me, my surgery was extremely successful. I was cleared for all athletics at the age of 5. I took full advantage of this and began wrestling at 6. I wrestled all the way up into college and was a letter-winner for the Iowa State Wrestling team under Coach Bobby Douglas.

Recently I discovered that I was not a rare case and that many congenital heart defects are much more severe than mine. I know that research needs to be funded to help these children live active lives into adulthood. The Children’s Heart Foundation is funding that research. Last summer I rode my bicycle across the United States for The Children’s Heart Foundation. I will be doing it again this summer, but with a little more company!