Louisville family hoping to raise travel funds for 7 month-old baby with rare form of dwarfism needing surgery

Baby Matthew weighs under four pounds and needs surgery on his skull

Matthew Riddle III has MOPDII and weighed one pound two ounces when he was born (GoFundMe)

A family whose baby boy has a rare form of dwarfism are hoping to raise awareness of his condition while raising funds to be able to keep travelling between Kentucky and California for their son’s surgery.

Matthew Riddle III, the seven-month-old son of Jenevieve Cook, was born with a rare condition called MOPDII or primordial dwarfism. It means he appears as small as a new born baby, weighs under four pounds and wears clothes made for teddy bears and dolls.

During Ms Cook’s pregnancy doctors discovered Matthew was not growing properly and induced the birth at 28 weeks. He weighed just one pound two ounces when he was born and doctors thought he had microcephaly, WLKY reports.

When the results of an exome test showed Matthew had MOPDII, Ms Cook said she was told that instead of having a short life expectancy, her son would be able to “walk, he would talk, he would go to school, he would just be extraordinarily small”.

Now Matthew’s parents are hoping to raise money to help pay for the travel they need to do for their son’s surgery in California. A GoFundMe page was set up to help fund these trips and has so far raised $4,100 of its $10,000 goal.

Matthew has a disease called Moya Moya which is causing him to experience seizures and strokes. The surgery in California will try to counter the narrowing brain vessels in Matthew’s skull that are thinning and cutting blood flow, by creating new pathways for blood to flow to the brain.

His parents wrote on the GoFundMe page: “We are trying to raise enough money that we are able to continually travel for [Matthew’s] medical appointments. He is due for two surgeries this month.

“We have two older boys as well so money is starting get tight with being out of work and traveling for Matthew.”

Ms Cook told WLKY that she and the family try to make life for Matthew as normal as possible and want to show that there is “nothing wrong with just being different”.