'Covid-19 Ruined My Son's Life-Saving Transplant'

Mateoh can’t have a bone marrow transplant because of the pandemic

- Josephine Agostino

Shalyn Eggleton lost count of how many times she took her son Mateoh to the doctor for a ‘cough’ that just wouldn’t go away.

“I was always told it was croup (a respiratory infection),” the 25-year-old tells New Idea “Mateoh was prescribed antibiotics and we were sent on our way.”

As time went on, the mum of four knew that something more was wrong with her son.

“Around the time he turned 2, I noticed he wasn’t like other kids. He wouldn’t play – he would just sit in the corner of the lounge and didn’t look well at all,” the Gold Coast woman recalls.

But it was seeing her third child, 1-year-old Kaiyden – who is 18 months younger than Mateoh – sharing the same size clothing as his older brother that finally triggered the worried mum into action.

“They were both in 00 clothing at the same time and I thought, ‘This isn’t right,’” she recalls.

“Mateoh was also lethargic and not eating very well. My thought was maybe he had a parasite making him so sick.”

On October 14, 2019, Shalyn rushed Mateoh to hospital. Had she waited just a few weeks, her little boy most likely would not still be with her today.

“He went into heart failure that day,” she says.

“His haemoglobin was below 50 (normal levels are between 70 and 85) so he had to have an emergency blood transfusion. They also did scans and found abscesses all around his right diaphragm.”

In the weeks that followed, Mateoh’s doctors had no idea what was causing his worsening health.