An ostomy is the result of surgery required when a person has lost the normal function of the bowel or bladder due to birth defects, injury or disease. The ostomy allows body waste to be expelled through a surgical opening in the abdominal wall into a special device designed for that purpose.
WHO ARE OSTOMATES?
Both men and women, rich and poor, of all races, creeds and color. No one is exempt, from the newborn babe to the very elderly. Some have felt alone with their ostomy, apart from the rest of the world. Nothing could be farther from the truth since there are more than one million ostomates in the United States and Canada alone and our numbers are increasing at an annual rate of more than a hundred thousand. When we add the millions living in other parts of the world, we find that we are far from being alone.