“Vasilis you are a winner of life”: The touching post of Akis Skertsou about his son’s health problem

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“I want our Santa to know and believe how strong he is and how much stronger he came out of this surgery,” says the minister.

In the health problem his son is facing Vassilis, and the difficult surgery to which he underwent, is mentioned Akis Schertsos, in his Facebook post.

“My Santa, you are a fighter and winner of life already from a very young age and I want you to put this in your mind” characteristically notes the Minister of State.

Akis Skertsou’s son was born with a malposition of his intestines that led to acute twisting. Last Wednesday, as the Minister of State reports, Vassilis had to undergo a difficult surgery. In his post, Mr. Skertsos explains that he is publicly referring to the incident on the one hand to make his son believe how strong he is, on the other hand to remind parents that children are not invulnerable and that they should not neglect any symptoms they show.

“I want our Santa to know and believe how strong he is but also how much stronger he came out of this surgery” the minister points out.

The Minister of State thanked all the doctors who took care of his son, noting that they are a “treasure” for the National Health System. “These people gave us the greatest gift we could ask for. They gave our little one back his precious health” emphasizes Akis Skretsos.

What Akis Skretsos mentions in detail:

“The last two weeks have been very difficult for the three of us, primarily for our Vassilis, but also for Avgi and me. Constant vomiting, severe abdominal pain and intestinal obstruction led to the diagnosis that our little one had a congenital malposition of his intestines which led to acute torsion and ultimately an inevitable, difficult three-hour surgery last Wednesday.

The surgery, thanks to the excellent and experienced pediatric surgeon Konstantinos Nikas and his medical and nursing team, fortunately succeeded in fully restoring the function and also correctly repositioning the small and large intestine. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts and publicly. A special thank you also to the professor of pediatrics Ms. Christina Kanakas and her team at Paedon who are a treasure for the national health system. These people gave us the greatest gift we could ask for. They gave our little one back his precious health. I don’t even want to imagine what it would mean if we were a few more hours late.

But the reason I’m making this post public, even though I’m exposing sensitive medical data, is different.

First and foremost because I want our Santa to know and believe how strong he is and how much stronger he came out of this surgery. It is a great shock to children when they fall out of the sphere of “invulnerability” that surrounds childhood and innocence. This violent encounter with the harsh reality that we are all imperfect and vulnerable can hurt them beyond imagination. And it takes a lot of work to come to terms with it…work that unfortunately many adults or middle-aged people have yet to complete.

My Santa, you are a fighter and winner of life from a very young age and I want you to keep this in mind. The cut left by this ordeal is neither ugly nor bad. It’s an award. She is all yours, she is what makes you special and you must love her.

The second reason concerns parents of young children. Although this specific condition is relatively rare and is detected in 90% of cases in the prenatal check-up, in our case this did not happen, as a result of which the child suffered for almost 12 years with – more frequent at an early age and less frequent as he grew up – vomiting attacks and stomach pain.

The symptomatology is very specific: repeated vomiting, severe abdominal pain and intestinal obstruction. If all three occur cumulatively then the child must URGENTLY have an ultrasound and be seen by a pediatric gastroenterologist and a pediatric surgeon. Those parents who face such problems should not neglect it.

I close with a photo that fills me with emotion along with joy and optimism. With this calm smile of awareness that, yes, life is full of difficulties and trials but with the help of science, with faith and effort we can overcome them, and thus become stronger, more mature but also more reconciled with the destiny of human vulnerability. Only in this way can we get to know ourselves better, but also truly and substantially enjoy the gift of life.”

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