A remnant from the time in the womb – why a Boy had abdominal pain

Pale and weak, the Boy is in the emergency room of a Hamburg hospital. His mother is with him, and reported to the Doctors, what has worn: her son had suddenly got severe abdominal pain and multiple pass.

Mother and son are familiar with the symptoms. The cramping abdominal pain every six to eight weeks. The boy is dizzy, he vomits five or six times. The pain last for one to two days and will improve eventually. Usually, the Boy has diarrhea. After that, the nightmare is ended, before the complaints return in a few weeks. Two and a half years it’s been there.

What is wrong with the child?

Because of the strange complaints, mother and son were a doctor, already several times as a child. They examined the blood and stool of the boy, but nothing can find. Also the ENT doctor, the Boy was already – because of fraud, was accompanied by pain in the abdomen. But here too: no result.

Axel Othmer – at that time senior physician of the section of pediatric surgery at the Asklepios clinic North – thought at first appendicitis as the cause for the discomfort. A doubt appendicitis could explain the acute symptoms, but not the last two and a half years with vomiting and pain. The children’s doctor scans the abdomen of the boy and feel a hardening in the right middle and lower abdomen. Next, he examines the abdomen using an ultrasound. And he will find it.

Surprise at the ultrasound

On the screen, the physician discovered a striking pattern: a circular shape that resembles a target. In the jargon it is referred to as a Cockade. The doctor now has a concrete suspicion what might be missing in the young. But the Suffering occurs primarily in infants and small children, in school-age children it is rare. The Boy is in surgery. During the surgery, the Doctors finally discover the true cause of the excruciating abdominal pain.

Othmer is currently working as a pediatrician and pediatric surgeon at the Asklepios health centre Wilhelmsburg in Hamburg. In the new episode of star-Podcasts – “The diagnosis” is how he describes the event in detail. The Podcast will be released exclusively on Audio Now. Here you can listen to him.

So far have appeared in the series: