The infant son of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Kendel S. Ehrlich is expected to be released from a Baltimore hospital today after undergoing emergency surgery for a fairly common stomach condition on Sunday.
Joshua Taylor Ehrlich, who was born March 6, was diagnosed with pyloric stenosis, an obstruction between the stomach and the small intestine, sometime during the weekend by the family’s pediatrician, who recommended immediate surgery, the governor’s spokesman said.
The condition — which affects one in 1,000 babies, mainly boys 3 to 8 weeks old — was treated at University of Maryland Medical Center by Dr. Roger Voigt, the chief of pediatric surgery.
“The surgery lasted for about one hour,” Dr. Voigt said. “It went very well, and we expect Joshua to make a full recovery.”
Mr. Ehrlich cleared his schedule yesterday, and he and his wife were spending the day at the hospital, his office said.
“Thank you to everyone for keeping the Ehrlich family in your thoughts and prayers,” Mr. Ehrlich said yesterday. “We look forward to a speedy recovery and returning home with Joshua.”
Dr. Walter S. Hutchings, a family physician who practices in Macon, Ga., described the ailment as a thickening in the pylorus, a structure that connects the stomach to the small intestine used for closing down on and ingesting food. He said the condition causes violent vomiting, dehydration and weight loss.
Dr. Hutchings said that many times the wall thickens to the size of an olive, and an incision the size of a dime is made during an hourlong procedure called pyloromyotomy.
“It is almost like slicing through layers of a rubber band, so that you can make a larger opening,” he said. “Actually, you do not want to remove too much because then you will have difficulty for closing down and things will travel through your stomach too fast.”
First-born Caucasian male infants are more likely to have the condition, which can be caused by an allergic reaction, according KidsHealth.org. Children whose parents had the ailment and infants with blood type B or O are more likely to develop the condition, according to the Web site.
Mr. Ehrlich is Maryland’s second governor to have a child born during his term. His predecessor, Gov. Parris N. Glendening, and wife Jennifer Crawford had a daughter, Gabrielle, at the end of the Democrat’s second four-year term.
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