BN Posted July 17, 2003 Omar gets 'new tummy' and a fresh start in life Picture: CRAIG ABRAHAM Four-year-old Omar Muse Mohamed shows his "new tummy" July 17 2003 By Lucy Beaumont When four-year-old Omar arrived in Melbourne on Christmas Eve, he carried much of his bowel in a plastic bag. When he returns home to Somalia on Monday, able to run and play for the first time, he will take clothes and toys and his "new tummy". "He pulls up his jumper and says, 'Finished'," said Moira Kelly, of the Children First Foundation, as Omar Muse Mohamed wriggled happily in her arms yesterday. "His family would never have seen Omar with such a personality. He was so gaunt and malnourished," she said. Rushed to the Royal Children's Hospital, Omar was anaemic, had not eaten for weeks and his bowel was infected and bleeding. Photographs show that a failed colostomy operation - required because Omar was born without an anus- had left part of his digestive system dangling near his feet . For years, he has carried his growing intestines around in a plastic bag taped to his chest. The tape left cracks in his skin. Once he was well enough, surgeon Paddy Dewan re-connected Omar's bowel, unblocked his urethra and created an anus for him. Although Somali doctors had tried to correct the birth defect, which affects one in 5000 babies , Omar would not have survived much longer in his native country. "Instead of going home to Somalia now, they would have been burying him earlier than now," Professor Dewan said. The life-saving treatment was made possible by Ms Kelly, Victoria's Australian of the Year, with $15,000 in donations from Rotary, corporations and expatriate Somalis, as well as free medical aid. "Eight weeks ago we did our first poo in our bottom," Ms Kelly said. "We were all crying and celebrating like it was a birthday party." Ms Kelly has helped about 180 impoverished or war-affected children to receive urgent medical treatment in Australia, Britain and the United States. Omar is unlikely to need further surgery and will rejoin his nomadic family of 10 in rural Somalia. "The children may be very poor but they are also very loved," Ms Kelly said. "He's got a mum and dad who love him more than we can imagine. That's where he belongs." Saying goodbye to the boy with a new-found grin will be heart-wrenching for Ms Kelly. Issa Farah, "Dhoollawaa" "I usually drop them at the airport and cry all the way home," she said. But with 11 overseas children staying at her Kilmore farm and more on the way, Ms Kelly's focus will soon be diverted. Her Somalian liaison, Issa Farah, will escort Omar home before returning to Melbourne with four sick children at the end of the month. They include two requiring heart surgery and one young girl with kerosene burns to her face and body. A Children First Foundation fund-raiser will be held tonight at Preston's Hotel William. Call 9485 0050 for tickets. Source: The Age, July 17, 03 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
