The Strange Case of Tom Little

Page Two

Doctors were able to keep his esophagus open for a few days, yet scar tissue eventually closed the passageway, leaving Tom’s physicians no choice but to cut a hole in the wall of his stomach. The opening was about an inch-and-a-half across, and with a sealed esophagus, it was the only way Tom could eat. Still, old habits die hard, and for the rest of his life Tom would chew his food thoroughly and savor the flavors before pushing it down a funnel, through a plastic tube and into the hole in his stomach.

Now you might think it would be impossible to keep a hole in your side secret, but Tom was terribly ashamed of being different, and he focused on keeping his malady to himself. He told few about his accident and allowed no one but his family to see him eat. Each day, before he left home, he wrapped his abdomen with gauze, which kept the leaking of blood and stomach acid to a minimum. Tom’s condition, one of his doctors later wrote, “constituted a constant threat to his ideal of physical integrity and fitness, as well as his desire to ‘belong,’ and he took elaborate pains to keep it secret.”

Sometimes, though, belonging came at a steep price.