When he was 5 years old, it seemed he was going to die. Today, 15 years later, he is healthy, and this is only because of an idea of a man from Hradec Králové.
That is the story of today’s 20-year-old Igor, who was the first in the world to undergo a surgical procedure, when a special reinforcement was inserted into his cauterized esophagus. Thanks to this, his esophagus remained passable.
When he was 5, Igor swallowed a cleaning product by mistake and it cauterized his esophagus. The following treatment for a little boy was very drastic. For the whole year, every 14 days under anesthesia, the doctors stretched a part of his digestive tube by force.
He always had terrible pain after that. He could not eat or drink. Once the esophagus even cracked completely. Igor’s mother could not see a way out.
After a year of such treatment, Igor was at the rock bottom. The white cloak made him panic. He lost weight and it threatened to take his life. It was at that time that in Hradec Králové they developed a reinforcement from a material that would disintegrate itself and the esophagus would still remain passable.
Igor was the first pediatric patient in the world to receive a biodegradable stent. The stent could remain in the body and the assimilated tissue could not be closed again. Since 2006, Igor has only needed to get implanted with two more stents. He has returned to normal life and is in good health.
Source: TV NOVA, 6. 6. 2017