Perforated Bowel information?

Oh sweetie! What a scary time.

I am not a doctor and I have not had to deal with a bowel performation, but I can tell you what I understand of the procedure. When the bowel perforates, anything that would normally pass through the intestines and out of the body gets dumped into the stomach cavity. This can quickly lead to an infection.

During the procedure, the doctor would make an incision into the belly, locate the perforation, cut out that section of bowel, and either attach the ends of the bowel to the outside of the stomach wall or reattach the bowel, depending on how the baby is doing and what they find.

I would suggest checking out this website . Also, you can search the Share site for information on Necrotizing Entercolitis (NEC). NEC is actually an infection of the bowels; however, NEC can often lead to bowel perforation and the surgery I just described. I know there are several parents here who have dealt with the surgery.

We had many NEC scares with my 27 weeker. We were very lucky that none of them progressed to a perforation or surgery.

Hang in there. This is a tough time filled with unknowns. I pray that mother and baby make it through without any serious problems.

Mary

I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. I'm praying for the both of them.
My daughter, Hannah, was born at 31.5 weeks. She was born with a jejunal atresia. She was missing a piece of bowel near the colon. This occurred at 10 weeks gestation when the bowel starts to form. One piece twisted the wrong way and cut off the blood supply, leaving a 'gap.'
This was discovered after 24 hours when she hadn't passed the merconium. The neonatologist informed me that she would need specialized surgery to correct the problem. I was told that ninety percent of patients with this atresia usually have an ostomy and then a take-down after several months. Hannah didn't. The surgery from ostomy to take-down is several months because the bowel is very slow in healing injury done to it. Do it too soon and you could have serious problems.
She had the surgery at 5 days and came home almost a month later weighing just over 5 and a half pounds.
Six weeks later, I noticed my child wasn't acting right. The doctor told me it was nothing, that some preemies go though issues with feeding and weight gain, but to watch her and come back in a week. Three days later she was vomiting and not right. I rushed her to the ER where I work and they immediately took her from me. They believed she had an obstruction, but sent her to another hospital anyway. She was severely anemic and needed emergency blood transfusions.
She was rushed to surgery after the doctor informed me that she had perforated her bowel and was septic. She had an terribly high white count and still a low H&H.
Hannah was given and ostomy that day as well as central line.
Her bowel had a hole in it right were they had operated before. She was bleeding from this hole and it was slowly dying. The doctor went in and removed the nearly dead piece of tissue, cleaned the edges and then pulled the two ends to the outside of her abdomen. Hannah had two piece of bowel next to each other on her stomach. I had to learn to pouch and clean these.
She wouldn't be able to eat food while having the ostomy because she was unable to absorb the nutrients. She had the ostomy ten weeks and it was reversed. She spent a few days in the hospital following the surgery learning how to eat again and gaining weight.
She is now 3 and a half and weighs 40 pounds. She's also 41" tall. The whole process was scary for me and my husband, but, thankfully, the only way Hannah knows is by looking at pictures from when she was in the hospital. I took care of her at home during the last seven weeks she had the ostomy and I'm so glad I did.
Best of luck to your family and God Bless You!

Our 26 weeks son had a perforated bowl soon after birth and was taken into surgery immediately. He had an ostomy bag for about 8 weeks before they repaired it and he was able to poop normally. Today he has a scar on his tummy, but no complications from it.

Shonda