Small successes for son of IU professors

As Matt Kinser catapults himself off the wall of the moon bounce, nearly colliding with his younger brother, it’s hard to believe there was a time when his body was so fragile, his parents couldn’t hold him.

Matt’s father, Eric Kinser, pulls a tiny blue hat out of his pocket and takes off his wedding ring — they both easily fit on his hand.

When Matt was born weighing only 1.5 pounds, the custom-made hat was too big and the wedding ring fit like a hoola-hoop around the infant’s arm.

Matt is a former Riley Hospital for Children patient, who spent Saturday afternoon with his family at IU Dance Marathon. This year’s 20th anniversary of the marathon raised $1,602,713.20 for the hospital.

***

Similar to many of the Riley children at IUDM, Matt was born premature. Born at a stage in the pregnancy when, in some states, abortions are still legal, Matt is the youngest child to be born at Riley Hospital and survive with a positive quality
of life.

“You get pregnant, and you get ready to have a baby,” Eric said. “You don’t think something like this is going to happen. We had just found out he was going to be a boy.”

After more than $2 million, five surgeries, six cases of sepsis, 14 blood transfusions and 112 days on a ventilator, Matt’s parents call him a walking miracle.

When Amy Kinser went into pre-term labor in her second trimester, the staff at Bloomington Hospital didn’t have a positive outlook.

“One of the nurses told me ‘You’re just going to have to have him and rock him till he passes.’ I said ‘No, we’re going to fight this,’” Amy said.

At that point, Amy and her husband, both currently IU professors, moved to Riley, and Amy was put on bed rest to prolong her pregnancy. Matt was born after only 22 weeks and five days in the womb.

Only a few weeks earlier and it would have been considered a miscarriage.

For babies born before 24 weeks, hospitals aren’t legally obligated to try to keep
them alive.

Because of this, the staff at Riley let Eric and Amy decide what they wanted once Matt was born.

“It sounds crazy, but we had talked about what would happen if he came out and he was blue. Then we didn’t want them to try,” Amy said. “We gave the staff criteria — if he comes out crying, do everything you can.”

And to Amy and Eric’s joy, Matt came out crying.

“We could hear him all the way down the hall,” Amy says.

During the next six months inside an incubator, medicine picked up where nature left off. But the same medical processes that allowed Matt to have a relatively normal life didn’t come without a price.

***

“What’s your favorite part of IUDM, Matt?”

The normally active and outgoing 7-year-old turns away from the stranger asking him questions and simply points to the balloons. He wants one so bad.

“No, what do you like the most about being here?” Eric asks, his lips almost touching Matt’s ear, trying to make his voice audible for his son.

Finally, Matt points to the moon bounce and then turns longingly back to the balloons.

While Matt was in the hospital, the life-saving medications that were pumped through his system caused him to lose some of his hearing, a side-effect Eric and Amy said they were aware of from the beginning of the treatment.

Matt’s hearing loss is probably what affects his life most today, but his skin also bears tiny reminders of those first six months — battle wounds from a fight he doesn’t remember.

“Show her some of your scars,” Amy says.

As Matt extends his arm, just above the wrist is what appears to be a burn mark.

While he was being fed intravenously, his IV burst. The fluid that was being pumped through the tiny infant’s veins caused black char marks when it came in contact with his skin.

Now, the black mark has faded into just a slight discoloration on an active boy who plays baseball and basketball. He loves to study the motion of roller coasters, gets straight As in math and loves to sing and dance.

Someday, he wants to be an astronaut or a policeman.

And as Matt runs after his coveted yellow balloon, it’s hard to believe there was a time when his parents were afraid he might never walk.