Andre Matthee living with DW

Hi

My name is Debbie (I am afrikaans so please forgive my english)and I also have a son that was born with DW. Today he is a healthy 13year old boy, that lives life to the full. I am so lucky to have this special boy in my life and I would like parents to know that it is not always the case that you have a child with a lot of defects because they have DW. Andre was born with practically no scull and had the nob on his back. When he was 10days old he had his first CT Scan and we were told that he has DW. After visiting several doctor and specialist we had no treatment for DW. And we did have a clue of what he was going to be able to do. And today the only thing Andre cant do is sports. But other than that he is as active as al he’s normal friends. The other problem we had was with his writting. He struggles to write and is in a special school that accommodates this. We live in SA on a farm and Andre loves nature and animals. He has a special gift regarding animals. He is a soft tempered child. I am raising him as a normal child but I do know all the stresses that come along with this diagnose. The only thing I did was stimulating his brain as often as I could with music and special games we played. He was in computer classes when he was 3years of age an is a very clever little boy. Next year he is in High School and the he starts with his training in computers so that if he finishes school he will be qualified. How great is that! I just want to give hope to the parents that have to hear there child has DW. It is not always to say – IT IS THE END!

Kind regards

Debbie