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Chicago woman's intestines burst out of her body after she COUGHED too hard
A woman with Covid suffered a coughing fit so powerful it caused her intestines to explode out of her stomach.
Doctors from the University of Illinois in Chicago revealed the tale in a medical case report, saying it was the first of its kind.
The 52-year-old, who had an incision in her abdomen from a previous surgery, became infected with the virus a few days before the incident.
Repeated coughing caused her to suffer a 'spontaneous abdominal evisceration,' when the intense force from her cough created so much pressure that her colon ruptured through the old surgical opening.
Doctors said in a case report that abdominal eviscerations should be considered a risk when performing surgery on patients who are or who become Covid positive (stock image)
The patient was rushed to the hospital where doctors saw several inches of bowel coming out of her lower left stomach.
They were able to clean the intestines, put them back inside her body and more securely reclose her wound.
While the authors wrote this complication is rare, they said doctors need to consider a patient's Covid status before performing surgery.
Doctors wrote in the report the woman had first undergone surgery 13 years prior for a hernia - when an organ pushes through the muscle or tissue that contains it - repair in her abdomen.
Soon after, she was incarcerated and over the years had to undergo several repairs to her original operation.
Five days before her freak injury, the woman contracted Covid and was suffering from bouts of coughing.
When she arrived at the hospital following a particularly powerful coughing spell, doctors saw her bowel protruding from the incision of her previous hernia repairs.
The left illustration is from a Florida patient's case report depicting how the man's bowels were protruding through the wound in his abdomen. The right illustration depicts the man's incision after doctors repaired his evisceration
The report authors did not provide additional details on the woman's condition, but wrote she needed to be resuscitated.
She also received antibiotics to prevent infection of the exposed bowel.
The woman was then taken into the operating room where doctors examined and washed the bowel and put it back inside her body.
To reclose the wound, surgeons used several sutures over multiple layers of the woman's abdominal fat, tissue and skin, including a very strong stitching technique that is able to withstand heightened tension in the body.
Surgeons were able to successfully put the woman's organs back inside her body and reclose her wound
Surgery was successful and the woman's bowel function remained intact. There were no further complications and she was sent home after six days in the hospital.
Abdominal evisceration is a rare but serious complication of surgery. It is sometimes called disembowelment and occurs when a patient's internal organs protrude through an incision because of wound dehiscence, the reopening of a surgical site.
A study found wound dehiscence is estimated to occur in up to three-in-100 people who have had abdominal and pelvic surgeries, but can occur in up to 10 percent of elderly patients.
It can be deadly for four-in-10 patients due to excessive blood loss, prolonged severe pain or injury to the organs that have been exposed.
Experts cite coughing as a prominent risk factor for the complication and the case report authors wrote that 'post-operative cough is a known risk factor for fascial dehiscence and evisceration,' which has a high mortality rate and is associated with increased future complications.
When wound dehiscence and evisceration do occur, they must be treated with surgery to replace organs into the abdomen and close the open wound.
A sterile saline covering should also be put on eviscerations to keep the exposed organs moist until surgery can be performed.
The surgeons added: 'As new variants of Covid-19 continue to surface, new clinical presentations of Covid-19 are being seen. Although evisceration is a rare presentation, surgeons should be aware of the possibility and take it into account when performing surgery on patients with Covid-19.
While the authors of the case study report this is the first known incident of abdominal evisceration in a patient with Covid-19, a man in Florida recently suffered a similar injury.
Doctors wrote in a May 2024 case report that the intestines of a man who had recently undergone abdominal surgery protruded out of his incision after he coughed and sneezed at the same time while eating breakfast in a diner with his wife.
The 63-year-old noticed a 'wet' sensation followed by sharp pain. When he lifted his shirt he saw several inches of bowel were sticking out of his surgical wound.
He was immediately rushed to the operating room where surgeons were able to successfully return his bowel into his abdomen.
After recovering in the hospital for six days, the man was sent home and experienced no further complications.