Baby, 7 Months Old, Fights for Life, Parents Forced Out of Home

SOUTHAMPTON, NY-Baby Mateo is only seven months old, and yet, he’s battling a lethal form of pediatric cancer — and now, he and his parents could soon find themselves homeless.

Former Bridgehampton School District Superintent Dianne Youngblood, a friend of the child’’s parents, who met the young couple at the Southampton Full Gospel Church, said the baby was born seemingly happy and healthy.

“It was just amazing. He looked so wonderful, a beautiful baby who hardly ever cries,” she said.

Then one day, his parents, who live in Hampton Bays, noticed that Mateo wasn’t eating. At first, Youngblood said, a pediatrician told them that his calcium levels were too high. But when he never rallied, they took the little boy to Stony Brook University Hospital, where doctors discovered a mass on one of his tiny kidneys.

The journey was one no parents should ever have to face, Youngblood said. “It was just as though they’d been going through a series of trap doors, one after another, like in a horror show,” she said.

Fearful that removing only part of the kidney might cause the cancer to “spread like wildfire,” surgeons operated and removed the baby’s entire kidney.

To his church family, the news was a heartbreaking shock: “They’re a young couple, and this is their first baby. It gets to the point where you just don’t know what to say,” Youngblood said.

The church congregation had shared in the couple’s love story, meeting Mateo’s father first, hearing about the ”wonderful young woman” he’d met, and watching him bring his love to church. Finally, they celebrated at the couple’s wedding and rejoiced at the news of a baby, she said.

And now, in their darkest hour, the church is praying furiously, Youngblood said. “Everyone has been praying for them. People of all denominations, Catholic, Jewish, Evangelical — all praying for this baby.”

Youngblood, who went to visit Mateo last week and pray with his parents, said despite the daunting physical battle, the baby was home and smiling.

But his parents were paralyzed with fear over a new roadblock, told by their landlord that they’d have to move out of their basement apartment.

To help with mounting expenses, another family friend, Alejandra Molina, set up a GoFundMe page, “Baby Cancer Fight” for Mateo. To date, the page has raised $3,240 of its $50,000 goal.

“We all make choices in life and usually have to live with the outcomes. But when you’re only seven months old, you have no real choices other than trying to eat, smile and grunt. Mateo has no choice now other than to fight for his life and he doesn’t even know how to walk yet,” the page states. “Around 220 days into his life, little Mateo was diagnosed with cancer in his kidney; a malignant tumor.”

The baby was diagnosed with Stage 2 malignant rhabdiod tumor, one of the most one of the aggressive and lethal malignancies in pediatric oncology. In addition to having his kidney removed, Mateo has endured MRIs, bone and CT scans, and endless labwork. The infant has had a chest port surgically implanted in his heart so that chemotherapy can be administered, Molina said.

“The little bugger isn’t feeling so great, but he’s putting up a great fight! Luckily he is a naturally happy kid; just look at his picture. This really says it all about him,” Molina wrote.

“The family has been devastated, but is fighting hard to give him every chance to beat this terrible disease.”

While they do have some insurance, the costs are staggering and Mateo’s father often has to miss work to bring the baby to the hospital.

“As many know, this costs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight. Fortunately Stony Brook Hospital has been generous, but there are still other bills to be paid while stopping everything to help Mateo fight for his life. The family has limited resources to fight such a huge battle financially. We need to help offset costs that are continuing to grow,” Molina said.