Mother Saves Her Toddler’s Life With Her Poop — Plain And Simple

Tatum Williams, a 28-year-old mother of two, has known that she has had a sick kid on her hands for some time. Her 20-month-old son Jesse was born at a mere 27 weeks and has encountered feeding problems and respiratory distress since his birth. He has also battled a life-threatening gut infection, Clostridium difficile, or C. diff., which resulted in the kid rapidly loosing weight through his diaper. Doctors reportedly told the mother that her “last chance” to save her baby’s life was through her own feces. Hear that? Even a mother’s poop can be superhuman!

NBC News reports that Tatum was “all for it.” Strong antibiotics, along with a intravenous immunoglobulin proved to be futile for her son. So a fecal transplant, which reportedly has a 90 percent success rate in adults, was proposed.  And the procedure went a little something like this:

The stool is typically transferred through a tube that runs from the nose to the stomach, or through a colonoscopy.

“The concerns were basically perforation of the bowel in such a young child,” explained [Dr. Sudhir K. Dutta]. “So fragile, so delicate.”

Jesse’s doctor, Dr. Dutta had to procure “special certification” to make the transplant on such a young child. After approval was dispensed, and Tatum was determined as a strong match, the transplant was underway making Jesse perhaps one of the youngest patients to ever receive a fecal transplant.

Two days later, the change was described as “unbelievable” by his mother. The formerly sick tot hasn’t been admitted back to the hospital once since the transplant. Which means that even through all the advances of science and antibiotics, even a mother’s poop can still prove to be pretty valuable to a child’s health.

(photo: B Calkins/ Shutterstock)