There are many possible factors that could lead to incontinence, childbirth, bowl cancer surgery radiotherapy damage or a serious injury caused by a motor accident, and many could end up needing a colostomy bag. A colostomy bag is used in the worst cases of urinary or faecal incontinence when patients have no control what so ever of their bowel and sphincter muscles.

Up until now, patients requiring a colostomy bag were doomed to live it for the rest of their lives, but a revolutionary new surgical procedure can give back patients control over their bowel and sphincter muscles eliminating the need of the colostomy bag.

In a touching interview with Carol Davies from the Daily Mail, 55-year-old Ged Galvin, a project manager from Barnsley, Yorkshire who was one of the first UK patients to go through such operation. Ged was recovering from a motorbike accident that nearly cost him his life, when he was told by his surgeon he would have to live his colostomy bag for the rest of his life and this contributed to the end of his 30 year marriage.

But Ged didn't give up and sought help from Professor Norman Williams, who agreed to operate on Ged using a procedure he'd pioneered ten years earlier, taking a muscle from Ged's inner thigh - with its nerve and blood supply intact - and wrapping it around the anus to support the sphincter (the muscle that controls waste leaving the body).

The nerve leading to the implanted muscle would then receive and electrode which would be attached to a pacemaker in Ged's abdomen. Once activated by a remote control, the pacemaker would send an electric impulse to the electrode to keep the sphincter closed; switching it off would make the sphincter open.

Cutting a long story short the operation was a success and Mr. Galvin was able to regain control of his lower body muscles and most importantly of his life.

Full Story here.