Giovanni’s Story

O Warrior Stories

Written by: Adrienne Perry

Giovanni was born with Giant Omphalocele. In Giovanni's case, he was born with almost all of his small intestines outside of his body. The opening is only 2cm, because of this and his body being so small, surgery cannot be performed to place his intestines back into his body and close it up, until he is older; around 9 months and will need several surgeries before completion. To protect his intestines, surgeons have placed a wound vac dressing around them. This is where they place Vaseline gauze all around the sac and then spiral granufoam around the gauze and then clear medical tape all around the foam to enclose it and taped to Giovanni's body. They then cut a hole at the top and stick a tube in it, (which is then also taped shut), and connect it to a wound vac machine that suctions out from the dressing. Giovanni has to constantly be hooked up to this and have his dressings changed by surgeons, at the hospital, twice a week.