This is the case of Tom Little. It happened in l894, when he was nine years old. He saw a pot bubbling on the stove and thought it was clam chowder so he sneaked a cup before lunch. In reality it was a lye solution that his mother was using for cleaning. It was the last time he would ever swallow again.

Doctors were unable to keep the esophagus open, so as a last ditch measure, they cut a hole in his stomach. Tom was so afraid of being different, that he kept this a secret;he bandaged and dressed the hole in his stomach each day.

None of his peers knew about this and when he was pinned underneath a pile up playing football, the ball drove into his stomach hole and later he was consumed with excruciating pain. The surgeons found that his stomach lining was protruding and they operated to make the opening larger. On follow up visits, Tom became disgusted with his Doctors saying it was because they didn't want to help him, they just wanted to observe his condition. He did not see another physician for 36 years.

Tom did menial work that varied from plumber to stage manager to maintenance worker. When he was 28, he married a widow with three children. During the depression when work became very hard to find, Tom ended up digging ditches. He was a proud man who wouldn't even think of taking charity. Honest work became to difficult and he had to have more of his stomach removed. The physicians who operated on him approached him about becoming a research subject. He had to support his family so he agreed providing that he could do janitorial work for them in the afternoon. Dr. Stewart Wolf persuaded him to try this: a morning of research and an afternoon of "honest" labor.

The research was enlightening. Dr Wolf was able to study stress on the stomach lining. It becomes red when stressed
and a light pink when relaxed. The window into his stomach provided a window into how the digestive tract works. There were a number of breakthroughs including the discovery of previously unknown stomach Acid.

Dr. Wolf worked together for twenty years and became fast friends. They had an agreement that when Tom died, his story could be revealed. Dr Wolf saw Tom twice a year after he joined Oklahoma Medical Reasearch Foundation. The research that was done made a vast impact on patients and physicians alike.

This is a condensed version of the story that appeared in Findings, a publication by Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. I thought it was fascinating and I hoped you liked it too.