In July, Drew and Ariann Corpstein birthed a beautiful baby boy named Matthew expecting that he wouldn’t live longer than a few days.
During the Corpstein’s 20-week ultrasound the doctors discovered that the baby was missing most of his brain, diagnosing him with a terminal brain malformation. On the family’s GoFundMe page, they wrote, “Instead of a brain, it was replaced with cerebral spinal fluid. The fluid was going to continue to expand the head of our baby. The head size was measuring about 3 weeks ahead of normal. We were told our baby wouldn’t live past several days, if not hours, or die before birth.”
According to Fox News, the couple had experienced a miscarriage in 2016. With this in mind they began to prepare themselves to lose this baby as well. The couple chose to cease the day while they were pregnant with their son and went motorcycle riding and took a trip to Costa Rica.
Despite the fear they were facing in the potential death of their son, the couple continued to rely on God, saying, “Whatever happens, it’s in God’s hands.”
When baby Matthew was born the doctors discovered that their initial diagnosis was wrong. Instead of a terminal brain malformation, Matthew was experiencing hydrocephalus. This condition causes there to be extra fluid on fully developed brain tissue, meaning that the cerebral spinal fluid they thought was replacing the brain tissue was not, and the baby’s brain tissue continued to grow.
The baby was hurried into an emergency surgery where a shunt was inserted to drain the excess fluid. According to Fox News, the Corpstein’s were told that their son could have “every chance at a normal life.”
Dr. Jona Conklin, a perinatologist who worked with the Corpsteins, told the Des Moines Register that “the baby still had a long road ahead.” Nonetheless, the family is continued to rely on God and has deemed their son “Matthew The Great.”
Ariann Corpstein posted a ‘Matthew update’ to Facebook on August 22, saying, “Romans 5:3-5 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
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