Faecal transplant hailed as life-saver
A Christchurch woman has been cured from a year of sickness with her grandson’s poo.
Colleen Folkers discovered the groundbreaking cure after spending a year in and out of hospital and feeling so ill she ‘‘wanted to die’’.
While a relative newcomer to New Zealand’s health system, faecal transplants have been hailed as one of the only fail-safe treatments for a specific type of intestinal infection. Worldwide, the option is an experimental treatment for Crohn’s disease or colitis. Videos to try it at home can be found with a quick online search – but health officials advise against it.
Faecal transplants are used for an overgrowth of a type of harmful bacteria – clostridium difficile – that lives in the gut.
The bacteria is usually kept under control by the other ‘‘good’’ bacteria, but is allowed room to grow when that is killed off during a course of antibiotics.
A lengthy battle with emphysema left Folkers constantly suffering from chest infections and dependent on antibiotics.
Towards the end of last year, she began vomiting, and was constantly nauseous and fatigued.
She later lost control of her bowels – one of the main side effects of a clostridium difficile infection."
‘‘I ended up in hospital and they put me on antibiotics. I finished those and then I would slowly go back. I ended up in hospital four times that year.’’
Folkers lost 10 kilograms and was always ill.
‘‘The last time I was in hospital I really did want to die. I wanted out of this horrible situation. It was this very vicious circle where I’d come home and end up straight back in hospital.’’
It was then that a surgeon came to her bedside and suggested she try a faecal transplant. She did not think twice. ‘‘I was willing to give anything a go. There weren’t any bad side effects suggested with it so it sounded like something worth trying.’’
Folkers’ 18-year-old grandson, who was at the consultation with her, immediately volunteered to be a donor.
‘‘I’m miles better, I’m eating again,’’ she said. ‘‘I think he saved my life.’’ Faecal transplants were trialled in the 1950s, and had not come back into use until recently, following the rise of antibiotics.
The Capital and Coast District Health Board (DHB) was first to embrace the treatment in 2011, and had performed seven operations since.
Auckland DHB followed in 2013, but did not want to disclose how many had been performed because of privacy issues, while Christchurch performed four in its first year.
Medical registrar for infectious diseases Niall Hamilton performs the procedure for Canterbury patients.
While it was not an ‘‘incredibly common’’ condition, it could affect people in different ways, Hamilton said.
Many people just get diarrhoea and flu-like symptoms, but in more severe cases people could develop pseudomembranous colitis, an inflammation of the colon, which could be life-threatening.
People were given two months of antibiotics to cure the infection before a transplant was considered.
When that point was reached, the patient needed a donor – preferably one not from the same household to ensure they were not also a carrier.
A faecal sample of about 50 grams to 100g was then provided on the morning of the procedure, Hamilton said. It was put in a blender with saline, and inserted into the body through an enema.
Another method involving a tube down the throat and past the stomach was not widely used because of the aftertaste and reported ‘‘unpleasant burping’’, Hamilton said.
Patients were told not to pass bowel movements for 12 hours to let the new poo spread good bacteria.
‘‘The people who were treated have been so desperately keen to stop the infection they’re willing to consider everything. You expect people to be a bit sort of disgusted or repulsed, but they’ll gladly have it,’’ Hamilton said.
‘‘We haven’t had anyone that’s relapsed yet – all of them have remarked it’s been one of the best things that’s happened to them.’’