His intestines out for 12 years

Aug 02, 2005

WITH his head buried in his hands, he sits on a dusty veranda at the entrance of his classroom with a ruler and a school bag by his side, nibbling away at a blue pen cover. At 12 years, he should be playing vibrantly with fellow kids. But Rogers Dumba keeps to himself all the time, plunged into deep

By Arthur Baguma

WITH his head buried in his hands, he sits on a dusty veranda at the entrance of his classroom with a ruler and a school bag by his side, nibbling away at a blue pen cover. At 12 years, he should be playing vibrantly with fellow kids. But Rogers Dumba keeps to himself all the time, plunged into deep thought.

When asked why he does not play with other pupils, he bites his lower lip and, softly says: “I can’t play. They can easily hurt me.”

The bright-eyed Dumba looks smart in his school uniform and white sneakers. But his story is one of perseverance and suffering.

When he takes off his shirt, his intestines stare at you. He has a piece of cloth tied around his waist to prevent the intestines from spilling out.

“Don’t get scared. I am used. I have lived with this condition for 12 years,” Dumba says, looking at a photographer taking his picture.

According to a 1997 medical report from Mulago hospital, Dumba was born with an imperforate anus and two operations were done on him then. He was supposed to have another operation but it has never been done due to lack of money.

Dumba’s father says he has failed to raise about sh800,000 needed for the operation.

The first and second operations cost him sh250,000 and sh400,000 respectively. Dumba eases himself through the intestines. The piece of cloth tied across his stomach is the only protection that holds the excreta.

His friends and teachers at St. Thomas Bazadde Primary School were shocked when The New Vision inquired about the boy.

“We didn’t know the boy had such a problem yet he has been here for two years. Parents report such cases when they are registering their children. it is so shocking. He is always wearing a cardigan, imagine if a teacher punished such a boy, he could easily die,” says Sylvia Bbosa, the school head teacher.

Dumba, a Primary five pupil, sits on the front row in a class of 103 pupils. His neighbours Sarah Namuyanja only knows him as a sweet boy with a charming smile. Scovia Mugoya, his class teacher says Dumba is an average performer in class. Last term, he was in the 58th position out of 130 pupils.
Mugoya says he never misses school.

But Dumba has his own worries. “I spend more time thinking that I am going to pollute the class because I don’t control the flow of excreta. It just flows.

When I feel my cloth is soiled, I go and change it,” Dumba has only three pieces of cloths, yet sometimes he changes as many as four times a day.

After school, Dumba walks home alone. He takes a short cut through a narrow path behind shops, till he reaches his home in Kireka.

His home is the fifth house among the line of one-roomed houses. At the entrance, he greets his father donning a yellow jacket.

“My son was born with no anus. And we didn’t realise it until he developed a swollen belly two weeks after his birth. We took him to Mulago where he was admitted for three weeks,” Patrick Kaye says.

Dumba was operated on but his condition worsened. He had to undergo another operation. It took Kaye three years to raise sh400,000 for the second operation –– all this time the poor boy was living by God’s mercy.

“With all my resources depleted, I thought this was to be the last operation, but I was wrong.”

The nurse said we had to take the child back for a third operation!” Kaye says. The meat transporter, with limited means, thinks raising sh800,000 is a tall order for him.

“I love my child, I have spent every coin on him since the day he was born, but I seem to be heading nowhere, I need a helping hand.”

Dumba has had more problems. At four years old, he fell into boiling water on a hot sigiri, damaging his ears. Sometimes puss comes out of the ears. A big scar is visible on his head.

At home, Dumba shares a mattress on the floor with three siblings. “Sometimes they squeeze me on the wall and ouch... it is so painful,” says Dumba, the eldest child in the family.

It is a humble family sharing one room, which has a kitchen, living room and bedroom.

His mother Getrida Nantongo, who has since separated with Dumba’s father, sells tomatoes in Nakawa market. The family stays in Kireku zone in Bweyogerere, a Kampala suburb.

Dumba says he wants to be a doctor to treat people and help them as well, it is because every morning, the chilly cold cuts through his sweater to bite the open stomach.

Dr Joseph Epodoi, a surgeon based at Soroti hospital, says being born with an imperforated anus is a common problem but curable.

“He needs to see a paediatric surgeon. He can be operated on in stages and will be able to pass stool through the inner canal. I can’t ascertain how much money it would cost him since I haven’t seen the gravity of his condition.”

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