Sick boy needs urgent surgery
A health scare for a sick toddler that led to emergency surgery on Mother’s Day has his parents ‘‘desperate’’ to get him overseas for treatment.
Two-year-old Auckland boy Rhys Andrews was diagnosed with Hirschsprung disease shortly after he was born in December 2017.
His mother, Jasmine Andrews, said the disease meant Rhys was born without some nerve cells in his bowel that tell his brain when he needs to pass a bowel movement, leading to obstructions.
But surgeries, including a ‘‘pull through’’ to remove Rhys’ infected bowel and pull down his good bowel to help him pass bowel movements normally, didn’t work.
Rhys’ bowel movements continue to increase – sometimes up to 40 a day – and cause him to scream in pain every time.
Through an online support group, Andrews came across Dr Marc Levitt from Washington DC in the US, an expert in Hirschsprung disease. ‘‘He is confident that with a redo pull through surgery, it will eliminate the pain that he has pinpointed to that section near his bottom.’’
Covid-19 has a put a spanner in the works on when Rhys will be able to get to Washington – but a recent hospital stay has renewed his parents’ push to get him the help he needs.
Leading up to Mother’s Day earlier this month, Andrews said Rhys had been uncomfortable and was spiking fevers. When he woke up on the Sunday, he was distressed and refused to eat or drink. By noon, the Andrews’ realised he hadn’t passed a bowel movement and his stoma bag was a very dark red colour.
Surgeons at Starship Children’s Hospital suggested Rhys be brought in to be checked, and he was taken into emergency surgery to have his stoma remade.
When he woke up the next day, he vomited for ‘‘hours and hours’’ and X-rays showed an obstruction in his bowel, Andrews said.
Rhys was taken to theatre again where a nasogastric tube was put in his nose so surgeons could decompress his stomach to try get the obstruction to pass, instead of opening him up.
It worked, and surgeons said the bowel obstruction had led to a hernia at the site of the stoma bag, causing it to stop working.
Andrews said Rhys was in a lot of pain in the days following the two trips to theatre and was ‘‘just a zombie’’.
‘‘It’s just heartbreaking watching him go through so much, and we’re just on constant stoma watch, we are worried it’s going to happen again … It’s just wearing us down.’’
The incident had shown Rhys’ parents the stoma was just a ‘‘bandaid’’ fix and it came with its own risks. ‘‘The only real way is to get him to the [United] States or else he’s going to have a stoma for the rest of his life and have these issues occur
frequently, or he’s not going to have a stoma but still be in excruciating pain, so we are sort of left with two options that aren’t ideal,’’ Andrews said. ‘‘It just leaves us absolutely desperate to get to the States.’’
Andrews said she had been in contact with medical staff in
Washington and she was reassured there wouldn’t be much of a delay in getting Rhys booked in – once
Covid-19 had settled down.
The trip is expected to cost
$150,000 and a Givealittle page has been set up to help the family get Rhys the treatment he needs.