Sebastien is a 13-year-old boy from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is in the 7th grade and hopes to study medicine to eventually become a physician. In 2009, at age nine, he was playing on top of a high wall when he fell and “landed sitting down” on top of a metal pipe that was sticking several inches out of the ground. The metal pipe impacted him between the legs, completely disrupting his urethra making it impossible for him to urinate on his own. Later that evening, he had a catheter placed in his abdomen, and he has been living with this catheter ever since.
Sebastien is otherwise in good health, but he experiences frequent infections and fevers linked to the catheter, and is in pain where the catheter enters his body. It also causes him emotional distress and embarrassment, especially as he gets older. Over the long term, Sebastien’s life could be at risk due to kidney infections related to his catheter. For $1500, Sebastien can receive a urethroplasty procedure, which will restore the urethra and allow him to urinate without a catheter. Let's help give Sebastien the chance to live a healthy life again!