Matthew had been sick with pneumonia in March of 2003. He had been under Doctors care and took all his antibotics. He showed all the signs of being fine, except a small cough which the doctor said would go away soon his lungs were clear. Two weeks later, on friday April 4th a day like any other, Matt came home from school saying he was tired and he laid down for awhile. His oldest sister came over later on and she went in and woke him up. We went to McDonalds for dinner (Matthew`s Pick) brought it home and enjoyed the evening joking and laughing and having fun at the dinning room table. After the oldest left, Matthew got onto the computer , my husband and I went to bed as I had to work the next morning. Matt`s other sister came home just as we had went into our room and she wanted on the computer, but because Matt had just gotten on it he said "no". Since it wasn`t quite her curfew time she left again. She came home 20 minutes later saying she had a sick feeling in her stomach and felt she needed to come home. She walked in the house and she saw the bathroom light on with the door open and Matt not on the computer. She went to the door way of the bathroom and Matthew was lying on the floor, he said "Get mom, my head hurts". She hit my door and screamed somethings wrong with Matt. I was there within seconds and he tried to talk but it was just a slur. You couldn`t understand what he had said. Then he broke out in a sweat that looked like someone had just hosed him down. Then he went into convultions and foaming at the mouth. The paramedic`s knew it was head tramma as his left pupil was all blown out. They took him by ambulance, not allowing me to go with them, we followed them to the hospital. He had had a stoke and they revived him at the hospital or in ambulance not sure which, but he was the color and coldness that I didn`t feel again until he passed away. They did a brain scan right away, they knew there had been an aneurysm and took him by ambulance to U of M Hospital with a third nurse in the back. They did let me ride in the front this time. After getting to the hospital, he was checked and we were told he wasn`t doing well, that his prognosis was bad. They called in their top brain surgeon and while we were waiting they sent a social worker in.They don`t do that if someones going to be ok.The surgeon performed a 6 hour surgery. When he came to us, the first thing he asked is if Matthew had been sick because the type of aneurysm he had was caused by infection. We told him he had pneumonia in March and he said that the infection set in the cerebral artery causing it to burst. The beginning brain scan showed 3 black marks of dead brain, the memory, personailty and brainstem (his movement). His brain just kept swelling and dying off even with all the meds that was given to stop it. With each scan each day, more of his brain was dead and black. By the end of the week, he only had 1/8th of his brain that was living tissue, and that it to would die off and he never would wake up. But being 15 he could have laid there for 50 years never waking. We had a 24 hour period that we had to take him off life-support or he could possible breath on his own and lay there brain dead and in the coma, never to wake. It was the hardest decision we will ever make in our life time. But we know in our hearts we did the right thing, as Matthew wasn`t Matthew, it was only a shell of our son that was laying in that bed with no hope. We know that Matthew would never have wanted to be like that. On April 11th, 2003, when we took him off the life support , he just changed color and passed away peacefully. That day changed our lives forever. We will never be the same again.