The Boy With No Throat 2

We are very fortunate, in our area, to have a number

of marvelous hospital facilities. Sick Kids'Hospital is world

famous. People bring children with little or no hope,

from all over the world, to be treated there.We felt confident

that Ian was in the best of hands. But, it was small comfort,

in light of what was wrong with him.

No baby had survived this anomoly until 1941, when an

American surgeon, Cameron Haight, achieved survival.

The condition occurs in one out of every three to four

thousand births. Sometimes there is a piece of detached

tube present, and all that's required, is to make an opening

in the blind end of the oesophagus and one in the

stomach and attach it at both ends.

Even if this was so in Ian's case, eating would always be an ordeal.

There would be no proper stomach valve to hold back the acid. There would be no muscles in the oesophagus,which we all have, to push the food down. He would have to rely on gravity to get the food to his stomach and apparently, in all cases, the food often gets stuck and it's very painful. This was the best we could hope for, the best case scenario.

However, we were not so fortunate. There was a tiny piece of tube. They had almost nothing to work with. They had to take part of his windpipe to make a sort of tube, but because they couldn't afford to compromise his breathing too much, it was short. They stretched it as far as they dared, and consequently,it was very narrow. It was the best they could do.

You might wonder why they didn't use some kind of plastic tube. Apparently, that doesn't work well. For one thing it can't grow. Babies grow rapidly. It would have to be replaced every few months. Also, it's not resilient and stomach acid would destroy it.

There wasn't too much trouble while he was on a liquid diet, except that his compromised windpipe gave him endless breathing difficulties. Even to this day, he gets pneumonia every couple of months. We've nearly lost him so often, it makes you lose faith in everything you believed.

When he was put on solids, he was in constant pain. The food got stuck more and more often. The poor little guy hated eating. Something was very wrong. One day some food got stuck and wouldn't move either way. He was in agony.He was rushed to hospital again.

We sat in that room again , awaiting a verdict. When it came, it was worse than we thought. The oesophagus had collapsed. They had to open him up again and attach the oesophagus to his sternum to support it. They also noted that the tube was not growing and was stretched, dangerously thin.

The poor little mite with the sad, sad eyes, who had pain as a constant companion, was about to be violated once more.

To be continued: