Helping Others
The Colorectal Center for Children at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is committed to improving the lives of pediatric children around the world who suffer from colorectal problems. In addition to improving children's lives, teaching is another important focus of the center. The center not only cares for patients at the hospital, but also participates in mission trips to developing countries to provide surgical interventions and bowel management to children in need and training for local surgeons. To help meet the care and teaching objectives of the center, Dr. Alberto Peña created the not-for-profit foundation to fund learning expenses for professionals and colorectal care for families who cannot otherwise afford the expenses.
If you look carefully, you will notice that staff members in the Colorectal Center for Children each wear a multicolored, fish-shaped pin. The story of the rainbow fish, as we refer to this pin, came to have special significance to our Center.
The Story of the Rainbow Fish
In Marcus Pfister's children's book, The Rainbow Fish, the main character is a fish whose scales incorporate all of the colors of the rainbow. He is bright and beautiful, admired by all of the other fish in the ocean whose scales have no color at all. One day, the rainbow fish is approached by one of these fish and asked if he might have one of the rainbow fish's colors. Willingly, the rainbow fish gives one of his colors away. Word spreads among the other fish in the ocean. And they each begin approaching the rainbow fish about receiving one of his colors. The rainbow fish obliges. Eventually, the rainbow fish gives away all of his colors so that the ocean is full of beautiful fish of all shades.
It has been suggested that Dr. Peña is like the rainbow fish. He is committed to educating others about anorectal malformations and their treatment and management and has done so by hosting educational courses for physicians and other medical professionals and by traveling around the world to perform surgeries. Since most patients seen at the Colorectal Center for Children are from outside the Cincinnati area, both Drs. Peña and Levitt welcome and even encourage the physicians of patients they are treating from around the country and around the world to come to Cincinnati to assist in the patients' surgeries so that they will be better equipped to manage these patients upon their return home and will receive education about how to diagnose and treat future children with anorectal malformations. The Center also supports a fellowship for surgeons interested in learning specifically about anorectal malformations. So surgeons, other doctors, nurses, residents, parents, and children are recipients of a rainbow colorectal scale that Dr. Peña has generously "given out" throughout his career.
Additionally, per the Atlas of Surgical Management of Anorectal Malformations, "All attempts at classifying congenital defects run the risk of becoming arbitrary, because it must always be remembered that the surgeon is dealing with a spectrum." Like the color spectrum, anorectal malformations occur along a spectrum - from fairly simple and straightforward to more complicated and complex. The interventions required to treat them will vary depending on the type of malformation.
And, finally, all fish have a cloacal malformation, a complicated type of defect that occurs in girls. These are the reasons why the fish pin contains a multitude of colors along the color spectrum...
Contact the Colorectal Center at Cincinnati Children's
For more information or to request an appointment for the Colorectal Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, please contact us.
