United States: In a shocking and unfortunate incident, a Florida man sneezed his guts out of his body while he was sitting in a diner having his breakfast.
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A man in his early 60s with a recent history of abdominal surgery was found to present with evisceration as a result of Sneezing and coughing, whereby several loops of his large intestine are protruding from his gut in the diner.
The man had been operated on 15 days before the accident, and his staples were removed that morning, a new paper in the American Journal of Medical Case Reports revealed.
The researchers wrote, “During breakfast, the man sneezed forcefully, followed by coughing. He immediately noticed a “wet” sensation and pain in his lower abdomen. Looking down, he observed several loops of pink bowel protruding from his recent surgical site,” as newsweek.com reported.
“He later related that he was unsure of how to proceed, so he covered the exposed intestines with his shirt. He initially decided to drive himself to the hospital, but concerned that changing his position might injure his bowel, his wife requested an ambulance,” added researchers.
“He and his wife went to breakfast to celebrate” his having his staples removed that morning, the researchers continued.
More about the incident
The ambulance got to the diner quickly and could see “large amounts of bowel” protruding about 3 inches from the wound with minimal bleeding.
As the paper stated, a paramedic had thought of such an action as pushing the guts back into the man’s body but declined to do so as the individual undertaking such a procedure is liable to injure the bowel.
Instead, the paramedics covered the intestines with a pad and dressed the man, administering some pain relievers for the ride to the hospital.
The urology service was sought as soon as he got to the hospital’s emergency department. His vital signs were fine, and preoperative blood was taken and reported to be as previous in a recent comparison, as newsweek.com reported.
A nasogastric tube (NG) tube was placed, and after explaining the procedure to the patient, he agreed to undergo an exploratory Laparotomy.
What more have the researchers added?
The researchers said, “Three Urologic surgeons carefully reduced the eviscerated bowel back into the abdominal cavity. They inspected the full length of the small bowel and noted no evidence of injury.” They also noted that” the suture line was noted to have dehisced at its center and was closed with a variety of sutures.”
The essential role played by Sneezing
Sneezing is an involuntary human action vital in removing objects or substances present in the passage of breath within the nostril, such as dust, pollen, smoke, or any strong smell within the nasal passages that irritates the mucous membranes.
The body, in turn, sends wind to propel out of the nasal and oral cavities with a force that reaches as much as one hundred miles per hour.
This isn’t the only type of injury that can occur from Sneezing: other research has revealed some prevalent experiences of ribs, lung herniations, lung tearing, and even brain tissue tearing that happened due to a sneeze.
Sneezing also causes an increase in blood pressure to dangerous levels. In the past, it has caused the aorta to tear and, in some instances, can lead to death, besides fracturing bones in the face.
In the present case, the man had wound dehiscence, meaning that it did not heal, or in other words, the edges of the wound split apart. Ventilatory dehiscence is regular in the context of the surgery that the man had, and 7 percent of cystectomies fall under this category, according to a paper in 2023.
According to the researchers, “While wound dehiscence is a well-known complication, this case is important because evisceration through the abdominal surgical site after cystectomy is poorly described in the medical literature. A PubMed search for ‘cystectomy AND evisceration’ performed in May 2024 provided only seven results related to evisceration through the abdominal wall after cystectomy,” as newsweek.com reported.