MSNBC.com has reported a story about a 55 year old Chinese farmer who, until recently, had lived his entire life without an anus. He suffered from a condition called “imperforate anus”, essentially meaning that his anus was not connected to his digestive tract correctly. An “imperforate anus” is typically corrected when someone is still an infant, at least in what are considered “first world” countries. Given that his parents didn’t have the money for the proper surgery when was born, the solution at the time was for him to receive a small colostomy near his scrotum. This was an imperfect a solution as he had to manually, “massage out” bowel movements using his hand. He also had to be careful about what he ate & used laxatives on a regular basis.

He recently finished saving enough money to get the proper surgery done & is now able to have normal bowel movements. There are many people who have to deal with colostomies, perhaps the thing that’s shocking about this story is that his condition is somewhat easy to fix by first world standards & the amount of time he had to endure with such a embarrassing & inconvenient condition. Despite the struggles he faced, he still got married & even had kids… Impressive.