Mumbai doctors reconstruct 12-year-old’s anus

A 12-year-old boy, who has been living all his life without an anal opening, was given some relief by the Sion hospital doctors who successfully reconstructed the anal opening last week.

Dr Paras Kothari, head of the paediatric surgery department, said, “Saiban Ansari’s family approached us a few days back. He didn’t have an anus since birth. Soon after his birth, he was operated on in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh. On emergency basis, the doctors there had fit a tube in his stomach for stool passage.”

Saiban was born in Sultanpur. He was brought to Sion hospital by his parents in January this year. “The doctors never counselled the family that this abnormality can be treated. The child continued to live with the tube in his stomach for all these years,” said Dr Gurse Sandlas.

Paras said, “We closed the opening in the stomach and, in the same sitting, reconstructed the anal opening. We are closely monitoring his development and will hopefully discharge him by weekend.”

The family avoided sending him to school because of this problem. “It was very embarrassing, as he lived his life with the tube. He avoided socialising and couldn’t lead a normal life. Our relatives in Mumbai asked us to bring him here,” said Shahnaz Ansari, Saiban’s mother.