COIMBATORE: Doctors in Government District Headquarters Hospital in Pollachi recently performed colostomy on a newborn baby boy as the child had no anal opening.
A small opening (stoma) was surgically created in the baby's abdomen in which a piece of the large intestine is brought outside the abdominal wall; the stoma is where the stool is going to exit the body.
An external pouching system shall be attached near the stoma to collect the feces.
The baby born in the hospital on December 13 after a c-section was not fed with mother's milk as doctors found he had no anal opening.
His mother M Maheshwari (30) was allowed to feed the baby only after the colostomy surgery on Saturday evening.
S Kannan, the retired superintendent of Pollachi government hospital, and other surgeons performed the surgery successfully.
Kannan told TNIE that the baby was born with an anorectal anomaly, a defect when the anus and rectum do not develop properly.
"After the scan, we came to know that the large intestine in the child was undeveloped. The once chance left is to perform a colostomy," he added.
Claiming that colostomy is reversible, Pollachi GH superintendent E Raja said, the child might undergo another surgery in less than six-months where doctors would create an anal opening for him.
The whole procedure was performed within one and a half hours, Raja said.
Miserable times
The child born without an anal opening in Pollachi GH was admitted to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for treatment on December 13.
Simultaneously, the mother was treated in Pollachi GH. It was on the same day when the child's father Manigandan, an autorickshaw driver suffered Myocardial infarction (heart attack) and died on his ride.
Considering that the baby was born in an inauspicious time that led to his father's death, relatives from the paternal side abandoned the baby in CMCH.
Knowing the information, the people from the maternal side brought him to Pollachi GH. Raja claimed the child is now away from danger safe after undergoing the surgery, adding that they would perform another surgery in six months.