Adrian Mukasa was born in 2010 with a rare and complex congenital birth defect called Cloaca exstrophy where most of the abdominal organs are born outside the body, with no anal opening and with an exposed bladder hanging outside.
Today, he continues to defy the odds of the birth defect and courageously lives each day as it presents. He has so far had three major reconstructive surgeries and needs over 30 more.
In the first one at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, they created a colostomy. This is a small opening on the stomach for his poop.
In the second surgery, they attempted to close up his bladder, unfortunately it was not successful and he was then referred to a more specialized center in bladder repairs in Canada at Sick Kids Children’s’ Hospital where they closed his bladder and revised his colostomy.
Currently he still needs multiple reconstructive surgeries according to Dr. N. Hansen, a Pediatric surgeon who operated on him.
Adrian’s leaking fistula
Adrian’s parents, Margaret and Charles Watuwa of Jinja say that he lives with a leaking fistula, he cannot control his urine or poop which keep dripping uncontrollably.
“We have to keep him clean and dry in diapers and colostomy bags or clean pieces of clothes which is not easy,” said Margaret.
Dr. John Sekabira, a pediatric Surgeon at Mulago Hospital says, a successful surgery would close up the open hole on Adrian’s genital area, expand or catheterize his bladder and try a pull through to open his anus to start functioning the way God designed them to work, allow him to develop, grow and give him the freedom to move about his world without constant risk of infection.
“Imagine the story Adrian will tell if he lives a normal life like other boys. A story full of God’s faithfulness, a miracle kind. Nobody wants to see their kid suffer. It is hard to take on,” said Margaret.
What is cloacal exstrophy?
According to Dr. Hansen, it is a physical birth defect where a hole on the front side of the body leaves the abdominal organs exposed, causing severe risk of infection and inhibiting basic waste function.
He says that this birth defect occurs approximately once in every 250,000 live births and only half of these survive especially in developing countries like Uganda. The estimated cost for this is over 900,000,000/= UGX.
Our prayer is that no matter what Adrian is facing, he will courageously excel in life and exploit all the opportunities there is in the world and shine to the fullest.
Certainly, for sure the daily struggle continues. A few generous people have helped raise money for his past surgeries, right now we are embarking on raising money to take him to USA for his next phase of surgeries.
Kindly, doctors have donated their surgical care in the John Hopkins Children’s Centre but we need to pay for the hospital stay.
Any help is welcome.
The parents can be reached on 0777 053936 or 0704 514500.
Account number 0150300522800 Mukisa Solomon Adrian
Standard Chartered Bank, Jinja branch.