A MUM was terrified for her baby as a rare defect meant he was born without a bum – with the toddler undergoing six life-saving surgeries before his first birthday.
Vickie Thompson and her fiancé, Alex, 37, were over the moon when she gave birth to their son, Charlie, and at first had no idea that anything was amiss.
But just a few hours later, while still in hospital and unable to wake her child, who was in a cot next to her, the mum began to panic.
That’s when medical professionals reportedly discovered the child did not have an anal opening and immediately rushed the child to have his stomach pumped.
“I was absolutely petrified… I thought he was dying,” the 36-year-old beauty therapist from West Sussex, told Jam Press.
“The doctors said, ‘We don’t think he has an opening’.
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Having fed the newborn just a few hours prior to the shocking discovery, Vickie had also noticed her son had not yet pooped and his pee was a strange green colour.
Upon further investigation, doctors confirmed he had an imperforate anus, the narrowing or absence of the bum, a condition which affects one in 5,000 babies.
Whisking Charlie to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the doctors removed the contents of his stomach to ensure no toxins remained.
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The next day, he was transferred from Worthington Hospital to Brighton Hospital to have a stoma created, placing him under more specialist care.
A stoma is an opening in the abdomen connected to your digestive system, diverting waste away from the bowels and out of the body.
Charlie spent three days in the NICU after the major operation, two of which were in a coma.
The mum said: “I was petrified I was going to lose him.
“They had to put him on life support and I kept thinking he was going to die.
“I kept thinking the worst.”
More surgeries to come
After seven days, Vickie was able to take young Charlie home.
Since his birth on August 12, he has undergone six life-saving surgeries, with more on the horizon.
Vickie said: “Being a first-time mum is an experience anyway, so having the stoma as well was hard.
“It was very, very stressful and at times felt quite lonely because people were scared to deal with the stoma, so I had to do it all.
“Friends and family were scared to change his stoma in case they did it wrong and caused an infection.
“They couldn’t handle the risk.
“It has certainly been tough going.”
At three months old, doctors attempted to create an opening in Charlie’s bottom, however, this, unfortunately, stopped his original stoma from working.
Rushing him into yet another lifesaving surgery, he underwent an ileostomy, where the bowel is brought further out of the body.
Vickie said: “Charlie became very poorly and couldn’t eat for 11 days.
“He was very vulnerable and malnourished.
“The liquid coming out of the ileostomy was six times the amount that was going into his body, so he was on fluid drips with vitamins.”
Following this ordeal, the child has undergone four more major surgeries including surgeons removing a large part of his bowels, which had died.
Now, under constant review, doctors are unsure if he will ever be able to be potty-trained, expecting he will spend the rest of his life with the stoma.
Despite everything he’s been through, Vickie is hopeful for her boy’s future and says he is “such a happy baby”.
The mum added: “This has caused him a lot of trauma.
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“The key thing [for me] is spreading awareness and teaching mothers how to check their babies.
“Despite everything, he’s such a happy baby.”
What does it mean to be born ‘without a bum’?
Little Charlie’s condition is called an imperforate anus.
The anus is the muscle ring that lets us hold in poop and then release it during a bowel movement.
Imperforate anus is a type of birth defect called an anal malformation, which means that the anus and rectum don't form in the usual way. Sometimes the anus won't have a hole or it'll be missing altogether.
According to Kids Health, a baby born with an imperforate anus has problems with:
- the anal opening, where poop leaves the body
- the rectum, the section of large intestine above the anus
- the nerves that tell the body when it's time to have a bowel movement
There a four key signs that might indicate your baby has this defect:
- their anus is missing or in the wrong place
- your little one doesn't poo within 48 hours of being born
- their belly is swollen
- poo comes out of the wrong place, such as the vagina, scrotum or penis
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