Age 2 – Lake Wales, Florida
Along with mother Chrystina Paxson
Mateo’s Neutropenia journey: Mateo had always been quite sick, resulting in numerous doctor and hospital visits with no known reason identified as a cause for his illness. Mateo’s mother advocated on his behalf and requested that the hospital evaluate his neutrophil counts due to his father also having neutropenia. It was at that time that the doctors discovered Mateo to not have any neutrophils and he was subsequently hospitalized for several days. His mother Chrystina writes “through a bone marrow biopsy, the doctors determined that he is a carrier of a very rare form of the ELANE gene which [according to] the SCNIR, Mateo was the 4th person to add on that list to carry that specific type of gene. He has Severe Chronic Congenital Neutropenia. He still has many hospital visits and has had 5 surgeries already. He is a happy soul and such a sweet boy. He is a fighter.”
Chrystina also notes that she and Mateo plan to advocate, raise awareness and funds on behalf of the Neutropenia community by going to events. They are considering making t-shirts and other items with “Neutropenia Awareness or Neutropenia Warrior/Fighter to spread awareness and speak to people and explain everything about Neutropenia that we know and have learned through Mateo’s journey. We just would love for everyone to be more aware of Neutropenia and we can help do that!” We are excited to welcome Mateo and Chrystina to the Ambassador program! Thank you for helping to raise awareness for our community!
