Man dies mid-flight after breaking out in 'cold sweats' and losing 'liters of blood,' scaring his fellow passengers
Man dies mid-flight after breaking out in 'cold sweats' and losing 'liters of blood,' scaring his fellow passengers
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Man dies mid-flight after breaking out in 'cold sweats' and losing 'liters of blood,' scaring his fellow passengers
- A 63-year-old man died on a Lufthansa flight on Thursday, according to Swiss-German outlet Blick.
- Witnesses told the outlet the man had blood gushing from his nose and mouth.
- The witnesses said passengers were screaming at the sight.
Any idea what kind of health complication causes blood to gush from your nose and mouth? Sounds insane to watch especially when you can't leave the immediate area...
Critical care nurse here. The answer is esophageal varices.
It's the same physiological anomaly as hemorrhoids, except in your esophagus. Swollen, fragile veins caused by increased internal pressure. In the case of hemorrhoids, that pressure inside the veins is caused by straining too much when trying to poo. In esophageal varices, the increased pressure inside the esophageal veins comes from blood backing up from a swollen, scarred, and damaged liver. So we often see esophageal varices in end stage alcohol use disorder.
Horror stories abound in emergency departments and ICUs of having to do CPR on a patient massively hemorrhaging out of their mouth from esophageal varices. As soon as nurses I know saw this report, our immediate thought was, "Yep, varices."
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15429-esophageal-varices
I’ll take “Reasons to never drink again for $200, Alex.”
My wife's aunt died from Cirrhosis of the liver and "so much blood" is exactly what my wife said she saw.
Just another reason I’m glad I don’t care to drink alcohol… did not know this was even a thing 🤢
Well that is pretty horrific
The only time I see ER docs panics and asked for another ER doc to be on "stand by" for emotional support is when they need to change a leaky Blakemore tube.
You know it’s a been a bad day when you arrive to your shift and the Blakemore box is out…
I forgot the medical term but when you have a REALLY bad liver the blood starts to take other ways to the heart to circumvent it (kollateral paths).
One path is going through your oesophagus so your venes widen very much. With the widening the risk of a rupture starts to increase very much and as soon as it does, there is nothing much that can save you.
I am not saying he got that but the description fits very much on point.
The word you're looking for is esophageal varices
Obviously I doubt this but it's a final phase of ebola.
Nah ebola is more of a oozing bloody mass. Gushing isn't possible because low blood pressure is another complication. Also, late stage ebola this man wouldn't be walking anywhere. Let alone well enough to be allowed on a airplane.
Disseminated intravascular coagulation, it's when you get a bunch of clots, that uses up all your platelets, and you bleed out because you can no longer clot.
This wouldn't explain what caused the bleed in the first place, nor how rapidly and profusely they were bleeding. Esophageal varices is a better explanation
For real, I need a plausible explanation
Check the comments again, seems like we got it 🙂
Ebola virus?
Oddly enough, alcohol abuse. It’s called esophageal varices.
It’s basically caused by veins in your esophagus rupturing. The same way you can have veins hemorrhage near your anus, causing hemorrhoids. In your esophagus, it’s usually caused by an enlarged liver putting pressure on the surrounding veins. And an enlarged liver is usually caused by end-stage alcoholism.
So the dude had an enlarged liver, (likely sue to a lifetime of alcohol abuse,) popped veins in his esophagus, and started coughing up massive amounts of blood. The dude likely wouldn’t have survived even if he was sitting in an ER when it happened. By the time it happens, it’s usually too late to fix; The victim will drown in their own blood before doctors have a chance to fix it.
But as a random onlooker with no idea what’s happening, it’s absolutely horrifying to see. It looks like something straight out the beginning of a zombie movie. Hell, even if you know exactly what’s happening, it’s still horrifying to see. But at least if you recognize it, you know it’s not contagious.
Source: Dated an EMT for a while, and she had a patient deal with one right after we started dating. I got morbidly curious, and regret the ensuing google searches.
Zingaya
I want to know too
T -virus
Narvik-B.