Baby born without anus needs money for surgery

Baby Ambrose’s mother shows the hole where the child excretes from.
PHOTO BY RICHARD OTIM

A couple in Moru Ateba village, Ngora District, is struggling to raise a child born with anal abnormality.
The seven-month-old baby, Ambrose Olinga, defecates through a hole made at the left side of his abdomen to help him pass the stool until he is old enough to undergo the operation.
“He was born with the problem. I took him immediately to Soroti Regional Referral Hospital and the hole was created,” the mother, Ms Christine Epodoi, said adding the baby feels pain as he excretes.
Epodoi and her husband Simon Peter Ochola, are worried that they may not be able to raise the money for the operation that would see their son correct his abnormality, four months to the age he can undergo the operation, and they appeal to Good Samaritans for help.
“The doctors (in Soroti) told me they will only be able to carry out the operation when the child is one year old. But I am told the operation is expensive,” Ms Epodoi said, adding that the exact cost of the operation has not yet been given to them.
A surgeon attached to a private medical facility in Soroti who asked not to be named, however, said such complications are delicate and expensive to work on.
“It requires a specialised operation and if conducted from a private facility, it could cost more than Shs5m,” the surgeon said.

Second case reported in Ngora
A consultant at Soroti hospital, Dr Francis Ogwang, adds that the problem requires careful surgery but in some cases, it can be complicated depending on severity of the condition.
At Ngora Freda Carr Hospital, it is the second reported case since the beginning of this year, a worrying trend. Babies with such disorders normally have difficulty passing stool the normal way and a temporal anus is created as surgeons investigate the severity of the malfunction.
According to the medical superintendent Kumi hospital, Dr Esther Obaikol, the defect is rarely fatal although some of the associated anomalies can be life-threatening and occasionally result in mortality or serious morbidity.
She said it is one of the most common surgical emergencies in newborns and medically referred to as anorectal disorder (imperforate anus) and common with newly born babies.
“In case of a severe condition, an opening is created through the abdominal wall and the end of the large intestine is attached to it,” Dr Obaikol said, adding that the stool drains into a bag attached to the abdomen.
She said the problem with the defect is that there is no control of stool passage and it becomes difficult to manage the child’s hygiene if the system is not repaired.
Although the embryogenesis of the malfunction is not clear, health professionals believe it is due to interference with the normal development of the digestive system at varying stages during pregnancy.

TO HELP
Contact the parents of baby Ambrose Olinga through Patrick Onyait, on 0779 037 202