Is Esophageal Atresia a Natural Way of Fasting?

“One day in spring, April 2010 a middle aged woman with her infant rushed into the emergency room at a local hospital. The patient was an infant, only 8 days old with a weight of 2300 grams. He had a weight loss of 400 grams since his birth. He had frequent vomits with no toleration to breast feeding. Because of severe dehydration and his poor physical condition, he was hospitalized in the Newborn intensive care unit. The infant was firstly diagnosed with hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, but then his ultrasound did not confirm it. Four days later, the patient was referred to the surgery department with the diagnosis of esophageal atresia (EA).” This was a true story from my colleague working in the pediatric department.  The patient was diagnosed with EA, type C, survthe most common form of EA, which the upper esophagus ends in a blind pouch and there is a tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) that is connected to the distal esophagus. This type of TEF prevents the patient from swallowing anything, and management of dehydration and hypoglycemia is necessary for survival.