Great Comebacks Announces the 2010 Regional Awards...

Great Comebacks, sponsored by ostomy supplier Convatec, announced their regional award recipients in mid-October.

If you don’t know already, Great Comebacks is a recognition for the achievements of individuals overcoming serious intestinal diseases, cancer, and other health conditions leading to ostomy surgery. The chairman of Great Comebacks is former San Diego place-kicker and Ulcerative Colitis patient Rolf Benirschke.

Great comebacks also participates and partners with many related groups including the United Ostomy Associations of America, Crohns & Colitis Foundation (CCFA), Intestinal Disease Education and Awareness Society (IDEAS) and several others.

Here are links to the regional winners, for each of their biographies on the Great Comebacks site:

• South: David Barger
• Central: Yvonne Austin
• East: Linda Pasto
• West: Charles (Chuck) Wielgus

This recognition, announced in October 2010, will also honor these four folks on June 4th, 2011 as one is chosen for the National Award at the 43rd WOCN (Wound Ostomy and Continence Nurses) Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Let’s hope their stories may help serve as awareness, inspiration and encouragement for those who are facing Ostomy surgery!

ConvaTec is an ostomy supplier providing numerous lines of pouches, wafers, and appliances to improve the quality of life of ostomy patients. See the Ostomy Guide ConvaTec Product Catalog for a list of products and associated codes, including the popular Convatec Stomahesive paste.

Convatec’s Newest Ostomy Product Eliminates Pouche...

UPDATE 6/11/2010! Convatec’s Vitala has won a Gold Award for Medical Design Excellence at the Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) East Conference and Exposition.

Vitala, a new disposable colostomy control device for ostomates, provides an integrated filter that works with Convatec’s skin barriers that seals the stoma safely shut, keeping the stool inside up to 8 hours while still allowing air and gas to release through a deodorizing filter built into the waterproof device.

To make removal and changing easy, the device has a built-in expandable container that makes changing easier without risks of leaks and odors.

Obviously, this device is far more low-profile and less noisy than an ostomy pouch, and clinical trials show that the new Vitala device can be used safely up to 8 hours for patients that have had surgery at least 6-12 weeks prior.

The Convatec Ostomy Vitala device is already available in some Eurpoean countries and will be demonstrated in the United States on June 12-16, 2010 at the WOCN/WCET Joint Meeting in Phoeniz, AZ. It should be available to U.S. patients likely around Fall of 2010.

Update: The Vitala Device has also just won a 2010 Medical Design Excellent Award

Useful Ostomy Supplies For Pediatrics

Kids should be kids, and most of the same conveniences found in adult ostomy supplies can be found in pediatrics ostomy supplies. Pediatric ostomy supplies are scaled to fit and conform to smaller bodies, available from major suppliers of Ostomy supplies:

Hollister Pouchkins – Pouchkins pediatric ostomy products are small-sized pouches for newborns, infants, and young children. Materials used in the Pouchkins line of ostomy supplies are constructed with soft plastics and ComfortWear fabrics for extra comfort for a baby’s sensitive skin.

ConvaTec Little Ones – The Little Ones line offers all the benefits of ConvtaTec’s ostomy products for the needs of children and the preference of their parents. Each pouch is designed to fit the contours of a child’s body and sit comfortably and gently on their skin. Little Ones includes post-operative, colostomy, illeostomy, and urostomy supplies, including some colored prints.

Coloplast ColoKids: Coloplast’s answer to Pediatric Ostomy supplies use the Assura Adhesive Coupling (AC) system that makes it easier to apply the pouch to the barrier. Coloplast offers both 1-Piece and 2-Piece Ostomy systems for Pediatrics.

Ostomy Supplies Manufacturer Convatec Helps out in...

Ok, so this isn’t directly about Ostomy, but it’s noteworthy news. Convatec, a provider of Ostomy supplies as well as wound and skin care supplies used by many has provided relief efforts and aid from its Dominican-based manufacturing plant by sending $400,000 in wound care bandages and dressings to Haitians needing medical supplies fast.

Convatec is cooperating with the Red Cross to get these supplies to the Haitians who need them most and to get them as fast as possible. It is good to see a generous donation from a corporation with the means and supplies to help in what could possibly be the largest humanitarian crisis of 2010.

Thanks to Convatec, organizations, governments, and individuals donating and/or helping in Haiti. Please continue to support these relief efforts. Time is of the essence for these impoverished people whose lives are depend on the generosity and aid of the rest of the world.