Lazarus – Making life a little easier for Ostomates

When you have to live your day-to-day life with an Ostomy, you jump for joy at the thought of ANYTHING that makes your day a little bit easier. Most people don’t have ostomies, most people don’t know what that means but for those of us that do know, we know that it can feel degrading to have to get that up close and personal with your body waste. You become all too familiar with your poop and really, you’d give anything (at least I know I would have) to not have to deal with it.

Another thing you don’t plan for is the cost involved in constantly replacing your bags. In countries like the UK, ostomy products are provided free of charge by the government. In South Africa, we aren’t so lucky. We spend SO much money buying bags month in and month out. Of course, the government does provide free bags if you qualify but not everyone does. I didn’t and it took me a little bit of figuring out anyway to find a bag that works for me. Life is too short to live with an ill-fitting bag which can cause all sorts of secondary issues.

When Adriaan contacted me about this new product they were creating, I was immediately interested to know more. A product that makes cleaning your bag easier sounded freaking fantastic. I’m not going to lie, I wished he’d contacted me sooner (before I’d had my reversal so that I could have tested it out in order to do a better review). However, I’ve watched the video and I really think it will make a huge difference to Ostomates.

Lazurus (named after the character in the Bible who was raised from the dead) is a prototype product that was thought up by a Adriaan’s uncle who recieved a permanent Colostomy 4 years ago after being diagnosed with Chron’s disease. He thought of the idea while in hospital! Adriaan says that the name seemed appropriate after his uncle  was literally saved from death by this life changing operation.

The idea for now is to have Lazurus installed in hospitals to make things easier for new ostomy patients. I can vouch for the challenges that arise with being a new ostomate and having to figure out how to change your own bag. I had nurses doing mine for the first month. I honestly don’t think I could have faced it alone at that point and it would have been nice to have the extra help.

Once Lazurus has been installed in hospitals around the country, the plan is to move into private homes and eventually reach international markets. This is the kind of product that has the potential to revolutionalise life for ostomates and give back some dignity on a day-to-day basis. It would go a long way in making life more comfortable.

About the product

LAZARUS is an easy way to clean any 2-piece Colostomy or Ileostomy bag, by simply detaching the bag from your body (baseplate) and attaching it to a similar baseplate connection on LAZARUS. Open the drainable end of the pouch and open the valve on LAZARUS to rinse your bag from the inlet right through and have it clean in a matter of seconds.

Lazarus is connected to your toilets main water line and stays connected in the bathroom. The sleek and clean-looking design makes it look like a part of the bathroom ‘furniture’.

People using LAZARUS save up to 25% on their pouches per month for the simple reason that it rinses really clean and the filter never gets wet or clogged. Also by using LAZARUS people don’t get any skin rash on their body because the filters remain dry and clean.

“We believe LAZARUS will be to Stoma care what crutches is to Orthopaedic’s” Adriaan

Please visit their website www.lc8.co.za or email daniel@lc8.co.za for more information or if you’d like to find out more about the product or how you could get your hands on it!

This post has not been sponsored in any way! I just really want people living with ostomies to have options for making their lives a little easier!