A four year old boy from Mauritius, picture with his mother and father below who can be seen to be anxious, but trusting, before the surgery. He was born with a blockage to the flow of urine from his bladder and so he had to be catheterised every day to empty his bladder. He had the blockage cleared during a previous visit to Mauritius by the Kind Cuts for Kids team. These visits are supported by the Society for Children Inoperable in Mauritius and the Mauritian Ministry of Health and Quality of Life. During the 2006 paediatric surgical team visit, he had his bladder enlarged with one of his ureters, the tube that takes the urine from the kidney to the bladder. This operation is becoming the best option for those with a large enough ureter and this operation is now preferable to the traditional technique that uses the bowel with its lining to make the bladder, a technique that can have a lot of potential complications. The successful operation took four hours and significantly reduced his risk of future renal failure.
The boy’s family’s tears of fear turned to tears of joy as the boy made a rapid recovery. He was home within a week, with an improved outcome for his kidneys and without the need to catheterise his bladder to empty it, because the ureter had been used.
The surgeons involved in the procedure were either taught how to do the operation or had the chance to further their experience in what is a life saving operation, one that saves kidneys and enhances lifestyle by producing urinary continence.
