'Critically Ill' Bucks Co. Man Making Progress In Ireland, Mother Says

LEVITTOWN, PA —The 21-year-old man who is in an Ireland hospital after becoming "critically ill" on a family vacation last month is showing signs of improvement and is now communicating, his mother said.

In two recent posts on a GoFundMePage created by a family friend, Sandra Small offered updates on her son Matthew, fighting for his life in Ireland for the past three weeks after a common cold turned into pneumonia and then Influenza-A.

On Friday when Sandra —her husband Greg is a Falls Township police detective —went to visit her son, she was overjoyed with what she saw.

"What a shock, he was sitting up in bed and off sedation," she said. "The speech therapist was with him explaining what the next steps are. She gave him a whiteboard and pen and asked him to write his last name, and he did."

Small said that was the first "real communication" since his hospitalization.

"He doesn’t have the strength yet to write sentences and questions," Small said. "Baby steps I keep telling myself. But my heart is happy."

Small said that Matthew was breathing on his own a bit with a ventilator as a backup. She said that her family is "going to be so impressed with all of his improvements" when they visit.

For the past week, Matthew's mother has provided updates on his condition on a GoFundMe page that was created by the family's friend Michele Spadaccino.

Donations pledged to the page have topped $35,000 so far.

The funds will help cover medical bills, and daily living expenses for the family (housing, car rental, fuel, tolls, food, etc.) as it remains in Ireland.

Spadaccino said on the page that the Smalls went to Ireland to visit family and that Matthew got sick on Dec. 31 to the point that his condition became "critically ill." He was placed on a ventilator.

On a family visit Sunday, his mother said that Matthew was back in bed, but had been sitting in a chair for some time in the morning.

She said he's off the main ventilator and is now on a portable one full-time, which allows for some movement out of his bed.

"They have been standing him up a couple of times a day, but he is still very weak ( he has lost a lot of weight and muscle mass)," his mother said. "The nurses are telling me if he keeps going at this pace he will probably be transferred to the high dependency unit in the next couple of weeks ( one step down from ICU)."

Sandra Small said her son still cannot eat and drink.

"He is asking for Wawa pink lemonade or a blue raspberry slushy," she said. "I have to remind him we are in Ireland. There are no Wawas."