Onyati
A mother of a 10-year-old boy born with an imperforated anus is in dire need of assistance for her child medical care, food and blankets for her family.
The life of Maria Petrus, an unemployed mother from Onampengu village of Onyaanya Constituency of Oshikoto Region, was allegedly turned up-side down 10 years ago when she gave birth to a baby boy without an anus opening.
Doctors at Onandjokwe hospital where he was born had to operate on him by drilling a hole in his stomach where a part of his intestine was left outside the body to pass stool.
The boy uses a colostomy bags placed at the end of the intestine to collect the stool. The bag is then removed when it fills up.
Ever since he was a baby, her son has been in and out of the hospital, but her financial situation has now taken turns for worse because the boy is becoming a teenager and taxi drivers have started to demand transport fees from him.
Petrus and her son travel at least once a month to Oshakati which is over 100km away for medical examination and to collect colostomy bags and flanges from Oshakati Intermediate Hospital.
According to Petrus, her husband used to work as a security guard in Windhoek but he lost his job after he was shot in the arm by armed robbers. None of her family members offer any financial assistance.
“Even when I call my brothers asking them for a mere N$50 they don’t send me. But my situation is so bad because at times my children and I go to bed hungry,” she said.
“We can no longer rely on our mahangu fields, it has not rained in the past few years. If you go in my children bedroom you’ll realise that they don’t have beddings. I rely on my two neighbors but it is not everyday that they have maize meal to offer because they are also unemployed,” said Petrus as she sobs.
Petrus allegedly tried to get an acknowledgement letter from the hospital for her son to get social grand from the Ministry of Gender and Child Welfare but doctors always toldf her that her son’s condition is not permanent hence, there is no need for him to get social grand.
To make matters worse, the boy who is now in Grade Three is allegedly being bullied at school by other children because of his condition. Sometimes the colostomy bag omit a bed smell as he has no control over the passing of stool.
Most times he allegedly complains to his family that he “doesn’t know why God created him with such a condition and it would be better if he dies.”
“The school principal protects him by warning other children to stop bullying him but you know children are just children. They still find a way to make a mockery of his condition,” said one of the neighbours.
Ongwediva Medipark Hospital Director Dr Tshali Iithete said Petrus family should consider getting a second opinion to see if the boy’s situation can be corrected or not.
According to Iithete, imperforated anus is an abnormality which occurs when a bowel and or anus of a baby did not develop properly while he/she is still in the uterus.
Iithete said doctors normally pick up this condition soon after the baby has been delivered and it can be corrected, depending on its nature.
“There are times when everything has properly developed except the anus, in that case doctors just carryout surgery to make an anus. But there are also times when you find a rectum connected to other organs such as a bladder, and you would find stools coming through the vagina it is a girl or through a hole, just somewhere below the rectum, if it is a boy. In this case series of operations need to be carried out,” explained Iithete.
In the case of Petrus son, Iithete said it would be difficult for him to tell what kind of abnormality the boy is going through because he have not seen him or his medical records.
According to Iithete some local specialist may be gladly examine the boy and offer second opinions and the best treatment for him.