Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report  

These X-ray images show the insides of a young boy who fell on a toilet brush while taking a shower and it entered his backside and ruptured his rectum before flooding his abdomen with poo.

The 12-year-old patient, who has not been named, was treated at Nantong Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, in East China’s Jiangsu Province, following the freak accident in his family’s bathroom bathroom on 22nd December.

The accident and emergency department diagnosed the child with acute peritonitis, an infection of his abdominal lining caused by his ruptured bowels.

Paediatric surgeon Zhang Youbo recalled: “The patient fell in the shower, after which the handle of an upright toilet brush entered his anus, rupturing his rectum.

“In surgery, we found his condition to be far worse than we had anticipated.

“His abdominal cavity, especially his pelvic cavity, was filled with faeces.

“We could not see anything with the naked eye, including the exact location of the rupture.

“His rectum was all but cut in half. More than half had been severed.”

An extensive cleaning procedure followed, and the boy spent four hours in surgery as medics patched him up and redirected his excrement in a colostomy.

Doctor Zhang added: “In order to prevent the contents of his bowels from continuing to exit through the wound, which could lead to further infections, we performed a colostomy.

“That is, we created an artificial anus through which he could defaecate.”

The boy remained in PICU for three days before being transferred to the facility’s general ward.

He was discharged earlier this month, Doctor Zhang said in a hospital report.

The boy is expected to return in three months for stoma reversal surgery.

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