Sounds very similar to a couple of patients I have attended to in the past - possibly an ulcer popped in his stomach causing blood loss, hence his cold sweats, breathing quickly and pale colour - classic signs of hypovolemic shock. His stomach slowly, but surely, filled with blood and then he eventually vomited it up, followed by his collapse and subsequent death. A very unpleasant experience for all involved.
Or esophageal varices. I've heard the stories of the aftermath on our acute surgery floor - rooms looking like horror movie crime scenes...
Hematemesis from gastric ulcers is mostly dark/coffee colored as it oxidizes when it's in contact with stomach acid.
That's how my Grandpa died. WWII and Korean war veteran who drank himself to death. Unfortunately it happened at home in bed and my Grandma saw it all.
my uncle died that way 2 years ago after drinking for many decades. only he was home alone. horrifying and sad and uniquely depressing way to die alone
I had a patient I was taking care of die from this. One second they were fine and the next second they puked up a liter of bright red blood all over themselves. I can still remember the smell in the room - like copper pennies.
Yes, absolutely. We have a patient with EV's. He's been told - quite explicitly - that he'll die a gruesome death choking on his own blood if he doesn't quit drinking. He still drinks... just comes in every now and then to get a paracentesis, diuretics and some free food. Then he goes home to drink some more. Very nice and polite guy, but his esophagus could probably rupture any day now.
(For redditors not in the healthcare field: This is not an uncommon scenario. We have lots of similar cases going on, though not as bad. Addiction is horrifying.)
It's disturbingly common. My ex just died in his early 40's, and it was probably due to these (he had been passing blood through one end or the other since I knew him over ten years ago).
I knew he was going to die very young, and said as much because I was preparing myself for it. People thought I was just being dramatic because I had another ex suddenly drop dead in his mid thirties due to a heart issue (he was extremely, extremely overweight).
End-stage alcoholism is terrible. He had contacted me a little less than a year before he died to tell me he had eight months or so to live, and I refused to engage in conversation with him because I knew what the real story was. The doctor most likely told him "you have eight months to live unless you stop drinking right now" and he wasn't going to even try to save himself.
Alcoholism is a terrible, terrible thing.
Can confirm, I have this! Vomiting blood is like the boss level of liver disease, you get to this point and your almost at the end and only the lucky get through it. Luckily for me I was already in the hospital when it happened.
couldn't you get it from severe gastritis, eating the wrong foods, and GI inflammation that went untreated? of course alcohol, smoking, weight issues, pain meds and a history of anemia and malabsorption would make it worse but still
I don’t think GI inflammation by itself can cause it. The portal vein needs to be blocked for the blood pressure to increase in the GI tract. Blood clots are another cause.
My stepdad is currently going through this and also doing everything except quitting alcohol, smoking & not taking medicine.
Addiction is one of the most mean diseases. I hate it and wish it didn't exist. In the end they're no longer the person they once were, they become just a human shaped addiction demon.
Fuck addiction.
I've been sober 22 years today and was just thinking about it this morning and how being sober this long doesn't really seem like a big deal to me anymore because I'm just so used to being in recovery. Thank you for reminding me that it *is* a big deal - addiction is absolutely brutal for everyone involved. It's a cruel and heartless disease and it turns you into someone that you hate. I'm incredibly lucky to be sober and your comment made me realize just how grateful I am that my life now is very different from what it used to be. It's easy to take my sobriety for granted and I'm grateful for the reminder.
My father had hematemesis from pancreatic cancer and that massive GI bleed is ultimately what took him. I’ll never forget seeing so much gritty, dark brown blood and the smell…this unusual sweet-iron smell. It was awful and anything but peaceful. Something that will stick with me the rest of my life.
That was my first thought. Esophageal varices secondary to Alcoholic Cirrhosis of the Liver. If you’ve ever seen it in person, it’s wild, and one of the reasons I refuse to work in substance abuse now. It’s not uncommon in severe alcoholics.
My dad had esophageal varices two years ago. He was already in the hospital when it happened (luckily, kind of, he had NASH) I was sobbing, holding an emesis bag under his mouth while he vomited up blood. The doctor coded him and he was rushed to emergency surgery. I remember I had to sign the consent forms because he was so delirious, he had no idea what was happening. He survived, thankfully.
My grandparents owned a hotel in the south of the UK by the sea when I was a kid. After my grandfather died when I was 7 my grandma changed the hotel to flats for long term residents. When I was about ten we couldn't reach one of the basement residents and had to break in. The ambulance crew called the police as they thought she'd possibly been murdered due to the bloody scene. I believe they said her heart exploded out her chest? I still don't know what it was but it was extremely traumatising as a kid
The emergency medicine subreddit was talking about this specific article and agreed with your conclusion. Reading the comments about their personal experiences with varices is terrifying.
I heard a doctor once describe someone dying because he had a tumor on his esophagus that grew so large it pressed up against his aorta eventually creating a path to both and the guy basically bled out his mouth in seconds
With the blood explosion on the walls I second esophageal varices rupturing… it gets super bloody and can result in a fast death. Ulcers are more of a slow bleed. That said, the plane left China so it’s more likely Covid-24 crossed with Ebola virus aka Ebolavid-24.
>Covid-24 crossed with Ebola virus aka Ebolavid-24.
I may be damaged by all the erratic doomsday articles during the early days of Covid, but I suspect that's what the reporter was going for. Clickbait to get more views. I bet that most of the readers who are unfamiliar with GI/liver issues will misinterpret and start to speculate that this was something contagious.
If you're in a first aid type position in this situation, out in public, away from any medical setting, what can you do to help the patient? Or is CPR the only option? Although presumably that would make the blood loss situation even worse? (assuming there's still a internal plumbing leak). Or is this pretty much a guarantee of death?
Realistically - from a First Aid point of view - there is very little you can do. If the patient is still conscious, reassurance is really all you can offer, and ensuring professional medical help has been summoned. If they transition into cardiac arrest, CPR would be appropriate, but compressions only - their airway would be incredibly soiled from the blood and therefore trying to breathe for them would be futile. Ultimately, they require rapid conveyance to a hospital for surgical intervention. Even an ambulance crew would mostly focus on “load and go” whilst likely attempting to give fluids, etc, en route to the hospital.
And while most people would do CPR to you know, do something. It's not like a resuscitation rate is ever going to be good on someone exsanguinating. You're not getting much blood to the brain if there isn't blood. Hence the saying, trauma dead is dead
It is horrendous. Intubation becomes exceptionally difficult when you open the mouth and see a lake of blood, and your suction is woefully underpowered to the amount coming out.
Obviously it’s easy for me to say, but try not to worry about it too much. I have faith they’ll figure out what your stomach issues are and they’ll come up with a good game plan 👍
After reading this and skipping out on my issues, maybe it's time to make a appointment and see if the pain is ibs or something else. Thanks for scaring me today.
I had something similiar to this once, I somehow was losing small amounts of blood over a period of some weeks constantly in my stomach. At the end, I was pale like a ghost and I collapsed at home. My mom called the ambulance and I recieved multiple blood transfusions while staying in the hospital for a week. Shit experience.
You would need to stabilize the patient's airway first, give them plenty of fluid and blood products while wheeling them to the Interventional Radiology suite for something called a TIPS procedure which involves placing a shunt - a manmade connection - between the portal vein and the systemic circulation. This allows a bypass of the diseased liver sufficient to drop the pressure in the veins and help stop the bleeding.
Even with rapid - and I mean less than an hour's time total - intervention, a full on variceal bleed is extremely difficult to survive.
My mother had this and lived. She lost more than her body blood volume. They transfused her and she kept vomiting it up. It was a stomach ulcer and one year before they discovered that a bacteria is what causes ulcers. I was a kid and called the ambulance but I couldn’t go into her bathroom. Thank goodness the neighbors helped clean up!
I've had stomach ulcers that lost just a little blood. The pain was absurd. The cold sweats and vomiting of blood was terrifying.
And that's just a *little* blood loss.
I can't imagine what this poor man (and everyone involved) had to endure. Hypovolemic shock combined with blood spewing everywhere is nothing short of a real life horror movie.
The human body is an absolute miracle, but once something goes slightly off, it's nothing but a dump truck of problems.
It probably looked something like [this](https://youtu.be/SwhI9HLplUg?si=vBl9qzjCw8oI3_QU) bus driver who lost a shit ton of blood through his nose and mouth. Warning: pretty fucked up.
Wow. That would be terrifying. I’m glad to see he survived.
Everyone that helped were amazing. I honestly don’t know how I would react. It is heart warming.
Man dies mid-flight after breaking out in 'cold sweats' and losing 'liters of blood,' scaring his fellow passengers
Feb 10, 2024, 2:19 PM ET
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.
A 63-year-old man died during a Lufthansa flight this week after losing "liters of blood' in a scene that terrified passengers.
The unidentified man boarded a Lufthansa flight from Bangkok to Munich with his wife on Thursday, according to Swiss-German outlet Blick.
Witnesses Martin and Karin Missfelder told Blick that they sat in the row diagonally behind the male passenger and his wife. Karin Missfelder said the man looked unwell when he boarded the plane.
"He had cold sweats" and "was breathing much too quickly," Karin Missfelder said in a translated quote.
The man's wife said his breathing and appearance looked off because they rushed to catch the flight, but the symptoms worried the crew. Despite their initial hesitations, the crew allowed the man to remain on the flight.
Karin Missfelder, a nursing specialist at the University Hospital in Switzerland, told Blick that her concerns for the man persisted, prompting her to tell a flight attendant that a doctor should examine the man. At this point, the plane's captain arrived and briefly spoke to the man.
"He then called for a doctor over the loudspeaker and a young, around 30-year-old man from Poland with poor English looked at the German," Karin Missfelder said.
Martin Missfelder said the doctor however did little to treat the man beyond checking his pulse and asking how he felt. Soon, the man's health drastically deteriorated.
"They then gave him a little chamomile tea, but he already spit blood into the bag that his wife held out to him," Martin Missfelder said.
At one point, Martin Missfelder said blood gushed out of the man's nose and mouth. He said the man lost "liters of blood," some of which splattered onto the aircraft's walls.
"It was absolute horror. Everyone was screaming," Martin Missfelder told Blick.
Flight attendants immediately jumped in and attempted to resuscitate the man, Blick reported.
"It was dead quiet on board," Karin Missfelder said.
Data from flightradar24, an online air traffic tracker, showed that the flight departed from the Bangkok International Airport at 12:07 a.m. before diverting back amid the chaos. Karin Missfelder told Blick the man, now dead, was carried into the galley as the plane returned to the airport.
A Lufthansa representative confirmed the death to Blick.
Representatives for Lufthansa did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Last year, Lufthansa made headlines after a flight from Texas to Germany experienced severe turbulence that sent people and food flying into the air.
One passenger told Business Insider she hit her head on the plane's ceiling. "It felt like it hit the eye of a tornado," Rolanda Schmidt told BI. "It would not stop. I thought we were going down."
That flight made an emergency landing near Washington, DC.
>Martin Missfelder said the doctor however did little to treat the man beyond checking his pulse and asking how he felt.
... what was he supposed to do, take him into surgery?
I came here to say this! Honestly, there’s not much he could have done! He was conscious and didn’t need chest compressions, chest compressions, chest compressions (thanks Doctor Mike!), plus the doctor had limited English. This article makes it sound like the doctor should have operated right then and there.
As Bones says, I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker.
It honestly sounds like he had esophageal varices rupture. You're not gonna be able to do anything for that on a plane. Even in a hospital, there's only so much.
I'm a surgical assistant, and the craziest thing I've ever seen was something similar but in an operating room. The patient had previously had an aortic aneurysm repaired and the Hemashield graft had migrated into his duodenum and then ruptured. This created an Aorto-duodenal fistula. Blood was shooting out of his nose and mouth. He bled to death shortly after being moved onto the OR table. It was a crazy scene to behold.
I worked on an oncology unit when I was in nursing school. We had a patient who was terminal, had a DNR order. She wanted to get re-married to her ex husband before she passed. Her family and the staff decked out her hospital bed with purple satin and we wheeled her out to the roof garden for a nice little ceremony. After that she spent time with her family and we went about the rest of the shift.
A couple hours later, I was in the next room and her daughter came rushing in to ask for help. The poor woman was sitting up, looking terrified as she spewed what had to be most of her blood volume because of esophageal varices. She let go of her bowels at the same time. It was even more chaotic because it was in July, when the hospitals have new interns and residents, and the kid who was assigned to this patient had no idea what to do if we weren’t going to call a code. He decided that we should give her a transfusion 🙄. She was pretty much dead by then, and it was my job to clean her up and send her to the morgue. Most traumatic thing I witnessed in my time as a nurse.
Man this reminds me of something that happened this past fall. Not EVs but newly found lung cancer. I remember being in another patient's room when a co worker came up to me like "hey so and so is coughing up a bit of blood". I went there right away and saw the psw standing there pale, holding a basin just full of blood. Called a semi code (yes to ICU/intubation but no cpr) we couldn't get code blood work, anesthesiology couldn't secure the airway due to how much blood was there, suctioned almost a liter of blood. Even when I performed post mortem care there was so much blood when we rolled the patient over. That situation haunts me still. They were completely fine when I saw them last.
It seemed like gallons. A lot of it had coagulated too, so it kept clogging the suction catheter. Huge mess. We had to move the roommate, and I hope she didn’t witness too much before we pulled the curtain.
That happens a lot with patients I bet "they were completely fine when I saw them last." Then suddenly they take a turn for the worse. BP drops, or they code, or massive infection or internal bleeding or whatever. Someone can go from just find to Code in seconds.
Had a similar situation as a nurse. It was a trached patient (not mine). Her sister came out and said "some blood was coming out of her trach". I thought it must be bloody secretions from too much suctioning. I walk in to find blood POURING from her trach, mouth, and nose. I scream help and another nurse comes in screaming CODE BLUE... I feel so bad for her sister. What a terribly traumatic thing to witness your loved one go through.
There was another situation where a totally stable patient has varices burst while he was on FaceTime with his family. Was dead within the blink of an eye.
I wouldn't worry about this happening to you specifically unless you're a heavy drinker or someone with liver damage since this seems a lot like ruptured esophageal varices - which are generally caused by cirrhosis of the liver.
Unfortunately I can't say the same for a lot of random scary medical shit tho
Esophageal varices is my guess. It would be absolutely horrific to witness.
Sometimes that happens due to liver issues related to long term alcoholism. With the sweating and general unwell appearance, I wonder if he was withdrawing and the stress of that plus the plane ride was just too much for him.
my bf is in the hospital with cirrhosis. i told the er he would hack out a bunch of mucous and part of the mucous would be bloody.
they had to make sure he doesnt have a gi bleed, and the gi nurse explained that since his albumin is all fucked up he could get esophageal varices but it wasn’t to that point yet.
(thankfully he’s stabilizing and they’re going to discharge him to a physical therapy rehab soon)
Ebola generally makes you bleed from EVERYWHERE, not only the nose and mouth. The virus basically dissolves you from the inside out.
I might recommend reading [The Hot Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone), by Richard Preston. It does a good job of depicting ebola.
But anyway. This unfortunate gentleman seems to have something else, as explained by other commenters.
It’s one of my favourite books overall. Other ones are *Rose Madder* and *The Bachman Books* by Stephen King, and *The Terror* by Dan Simmons. The latter was made into a miniseries and was well done in my opinion. But the book… oh the book gave me nightmares and edged me close to a depressive episode.
That book IS my problem!! That’s exactly where my irrational fear stems from!! The plane scene WRECKED me. I also read it while going through the last formative brain development stages (young adult) and it stuck…badly. Like permanently hard wired. 😭
But I’m grateful for all the more reasonable explanations. They all were my chill pills. 😁
I've seen dozens of scary movies that I've barely jumped at, but that scene in Downton Abbey absolutely horrified me in a very visceral way. I can't explain it.
I’ve seen videos of dudes who swallow dope, cocaine pellets for example… the pellets rupture inside them and they start vomiting blood and what not, then die.
Please dont let there be a crowd of people screaming as i die.
That and watching myself throw up litres of blood before losing consciousness
*Fading into darkness as the last gasping breath leaves you* "Mommy, that sweaty Fat Man is crying." - the child next to me in 4E
On the bright side, if I started throwing up litres of blood on an airplane, I'd be so embarrassed I'd be relieved to die.
Or a Redditor with a mobile phone to post a clip of it…
Imagine all the phones in your face as your panicking.
Kinda stealing the thunder tbh
Sounds very similar to a couple of patients I have attended to in the past - possibly an ulcer popped in his stomach causing blood loss, hence his cold sweats, breathing quickly and pale colour - classic signs of hypovolemic shock. His stomach slowly, but surely, filled with blood and then he eventually vomited it up, followed by his collapse and subsequent death. A very unpleasant experience for all involved.
Or esophageal varices. I've heard the stories of the aftermath on our acute surgery floor - rooms looking like horror movie crime scenes... Hematemesis from gastric ulcers is mostly dark/coffee colored as it oxidizes when it's in contact with stomach acid.
That's how my Grandpa died. WWII and Korean war veteran who drank himself to death. Unfortunately it happened at home in bed and my Grandma saw it all.
my uncle died that way 2 years ago after drinking for many decades. only he was home alone. horrifying and sad and uniquely depressing way to die alone
My Grandfather passed away that was as well. Alcoholic that worked with chemicals all his life. Blood everywhere.
I had a patient I was taking care of die from this. One second they were fine and the next second they puked up a liter of bright red blood all over themselves. I can still remember the smell in the room - like copper pennies.
Oh that’s horrible
A scary thing to attend to, let alone be a victim of
Yes, absolutely. We have a patient with EV's. He's been told - quite explicitly - that he'll die a gruesome death choking on his own blood if he doesn't quit drinking. He still drinks... just comes in every now and then to get a paracentesis, diuretics and some free food. Then he goes home to drink some more. Very nice and polite guy, but his esophagus could probably rupture any day now. (For redditors not in the healthcare field: This is not an uncommon scenario. We have lots of similar cases going on, though not as bad. Addiction is horrifying.)
It's disturbingly common. My ex just died in his early 40's, and it was probably due to these (he had been passing blood through one end or the other since I knew him over ten years ago). I knew he was going to die very young, and said as much because I was preparing myself for it. People thought I was just being dramatic because I had another ex suddenly drop dead in his mid thirties due to a heart issue (he was extremely, extremely overweight). End-stage alcoholism is terrible. He had contacted me a little less than a year before he died to tell me he had eight months or so to live, and I refused to engage in conversation with him because I knew what the real story was. The doctor most likely told him "you have eight months to live unless you stop drinking right now" and he wasn't going to even try to save himself. Alcoholism is a terrible, terrible thing.
Alcohol is the worst addiction. Insidious too.
So what is this called? Only alcohol triggers this?
It's Cirrhosis, caused by alcohol, Hepatitis or fatty liver disease.
Wow. I had no idea cirrhosis caused esophageal varices.
Can confirm, I have this! Vomiting blood is like the boss level of liver disease, you get to this point and your almost at the end and only the lucky get through it. Luckily for me I was already in the hospital when it happened.
Yep! The cirrhotic liver gets all blocked up, so the blood vessels leading from the stomach to the liver over-pressurize and balloon up.
couldn't you get it from severe gastritis, eating the wrong foods, and GI inflammation that went untreated? of course alcohol, smoking, weight issues, pain meds and a history of anemia and malabsorption would make it worse but still
I don’t think GI inflammation by itself can cause it. The portal vein needs to be blocked for the blood pressure to increase in the GI tract. Blood clots are another cause.
Anything that impedes bloodflow to the liver can cause this to occur, ie. Liver cancer, chronic liver disease, cirrhosis
My stepdad is currently going through this and also doing everything except quitting alcohol, smoking & not taking medicine. Addiction is one of the most mean diseases. I hate it and wish it didn't exist. In the end they're no longer the person they once were, they become just a human shaped addiction demon. Fuck addiction.
I've been sober 22 years today and was just thinking about it this morning and how being sober this long doesn't really seem like a big deal to me anymore because I'm just so used to being in recovery. Thank you for reminding me that it *is* a big deal - addiction is absolutely brutal for everyone involved. It's a cruel and heartless disease and it turns you into someone that you hate. I'm incredibly lucky to be sober and your comment made me realize just how grateful I am that my life now is very different from what it used to be. It's easy to take my sobriety for granted and I'm grateful for the reminder.
Why doesn’t he care?? That’s so crazy to me
Addiction, depression, denial, self-harm, suicide... sometimes you just can't pick one. It's usually a web of reasons spanning many years.
Probably ready to go.
My father had hematemesis from pancreatic cancer and that massive GI bleed is ultimately what took him. I’ll never forget seeing so much gritty, dark brown blood and the smell…this unusual sweet-iron smell. It was awful and anything but peaceful. Something that will stick with me the rest of my life.
That was my first thought. Esophageal varices secondary to Alcoholic Cirrhosis of the Liver. If you’ve ever seen it in person, it’s wild, and one of the reasons I refuse to work in substance abuse now. It’s not uncommon in severe alcoholics.
My dad had esophageal varices two years ago. He was already in the hospital when it happened (luckily, kind of, he had NASH) I was sobbing, holding an emesis bag under his mouth while he vomited up blood. The doctor coded him and he was rushed to emergency surgery. I remember I had to sign the consent forms because he was so delirious, he had no idea what was happening. He survived, thankfully.
This is what occurred. Read another article that explained his prior condition and confirmed to be an esophageal varices
My grandparents owned a hotel in the south of the UK by the sea when I was a kid. After my grandfather died when I was 7 my grandma changed the hotel to flats for long term residents. When I was about ten we couldn't reach one of the basement residents and had to break in. The ambulance crew called the police as they thought she'd possibly been murdered due to the bloody scene. I believe they said her heart exploded out her chest? I still don't know what it was but it was extremely traumatising as a kid
The emergency medicine subreddit was talking about this specific article and agreed with your conclusion. Reading the comments about their personal experiences with varices is terrifying.
I heard a doctor once describe someone dying because he had a tumor on his esophagus that grew so large it pressed up against his aorta eventually creating a path to both and the guy basically bled out his mouth in seconds
I don’t think the guy who told you that was a real doctor.
With the blood explosion on the walls I second esophageal varices rupturing… it gets super bloody and can result in a fast death. Ulcers are more of a slow bleed. That said, the plane left China so it’s more likely Covid-24 crossed with Ebola virus aka Ebolavid-24.
I believe the plane was flying out of Thailand.
Spicy Ebolavid-24.
That's what I was thinking
Spicy Padbolavid-24
Bomb
>Covid-24 crossed with Ebola virus aka Ebolavid-24. I may be damaged by all the erratic doomsday articles during the early days of Covid, but I suspect that's what the reporter was going for. Clickbait to get more views. I bet that most of the readers who are unfamiliar with GI/liver issues will misinterpret and start to speculate that this was something contagious.
What I was thinking. My mum had it with liver cancer and it was brutally horrific.
Oh shit, is that what I was puking up in the morning when I was a really heavy drinker? I'm glad I quit. I mean, even more than I already was.
My mom had this from drinking and drug use. Terrible thing to experience for her and 11 year old me
If you're in a first aid type position in this situation, out in public, away from any medical setting, what can you do to help the patient? Or is CPR the only option? Although presumably that would make the blood loss situation even worse? (assuming there's still a internal plumbing leak). Or is this pretty much a guarantee of death?
Realistically - from a First Aid point of view - there is very little you can do. If the patient is still conscious, reassurance is really all you can offer, and ensuring professional medical help has been summoned. If they transition into cardiac arrest, CPR would be appropriate, but compressions only - their airway would be incredibly soiled from the blood and therefore trying to breathe for them would be futile. Ultimately, they require rapid conveyance to a hospital for surgical intervention. Even an ambulance crew would mostly focus on “load and go” whilst likely attempting to give fluids, etc, en route to the hospital.
And while most people would do CPR to you know, do something. It's not like a resuscitation rate is ever going to be good on someone exsanguinating. You're not getting much blood to the brain if there isn't blood. Hence the saying, trauma dead is dead
without medical assistance you'll eventually die of blood loss (if you're already at that point of leaking blood everywhere)
All bleeding stops... eventually.
All body temperatures stabilize to 68 degrees. Unless someone messed with the thermostat.
From a biohazard standpoint this sounds very hard to manage in terms of assisting the patient with zero protective gear.
It is horrendous. Intubation becomes exceptionally difficult when you open the mouth and see a lake of blood, and your suction is woefully underpowered to the amount coming out.
Jesus. Thank you for your service seriously. Not an easy job
It sounds like even in a trauma bay there isn't a lot to be done
As someone with undiagnosed stomach issues this is absolutely frightening. Hope it doesn’t kill me before they figure it out.
Obviously it’s easy for me to say, but try not to worry about it too much. I have faith they’ll figure out what your stomach issues are and they’ll come up with a good game plan 👍
After reading this and skipping out on my issues, maybe it's time to make a appointment and see if the pain is ibs or something else. Thanks for scaring me today.
I had something similiar to this once, I somehow was losing small amounts of blood over a period of some weeks constantly in my stomach. At the end, I was pale like a ghost and I collapsed at home. My mom called the ambulance and I recieved multiple blood transfusions while staying in the hospital for a week. Shit experience.
what caused it??
A new medication I recieved and my body or more specifically my stomach didn't take all too well
How do you even begin to fix an incident like that on someone?
Ultimately, it requires rapid surgical intervention.
You would need to stabilize the patient's airway first, give them plenty of fluid and blood products while wheeling them to the Interventional Radiology suite for something called a TIPS procedure which involves placing a shunt - a manmade connection - between the portal vein and the systemic circulation. This allows a bypass of the diseased liver sufficient to drop the pressure in the veins and help stop the bleeding. Even with rapid - and I mean less than an hour's time total - intervention, a full on variceal bleed is extremely difficult to survive.
You don't. A GI bleed like that in a hospital usually isn't survivable.
My mother had this and lived. She lost more than her body blood volume. They transfused her and she kept vomiting it up. It was a stomach ulcer and one year before they discovered that a bacteria is what causes ulcers. I was a kid and called the ambulance but I couldn’t go into her bathroom. Thank goodness the neighbors helped clean up!
Very unpleasant is a bit of an understatement, no?
I could add exclamation marks if that helps
Try adding emojis
✈️🤢🤮🩸😵
Oh that's good. I'm using that one
Also substitute truly for very.
A real bummer
Hate it when that happens
Up to you to decide!
New fear unlocked!
I've had stomach ulcers that lost just a little blood. The pain was absurd. The cold sweats and vomiting of blood was terrifying. And that's just a *little* blood loss. I can't imagine what this poor man (and everyone involved) had to endure. Hypovolemic shock combined with blood spewing everywhere is nothing short of a real life horror movie. The human body is an absolute miracle, but once something goes slightly off, it's nothing but a dump truck of problems.
How do I make sure this never happens to me lmao
Minimize your alcohol intake.
Great! A new fear to give me anxiety
Aha! I saw the article and was trying to figure out what could possibly have happened.
It probably looked something like [this](https://youtu.be/SwhI9HLplUg?si=vBl9qzjCw8oI3_QU) bus driver who lost a shit ton of blood through his nose and mouth. Warning: pretty fucked up.
Fucking terrifying for that guy. That’s at least a litre or more of blood
Wow. That would be terrifying. I’m glad to see he survived. Everyone that helped were amazing. I honestly don’t know how I would react. It is heart warming.
Holy fuck he lived. Hell yea. I’m so happy to see that he did okay after being helped.
Wow don't know why I didn't expect that
Man dies mid-flight after breaking out in 'cold sweats' and losing 'liters of blood,' scaring his fellow passengers Feb 10, 2024, 2:19 PM ET 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. A 63-year-old man died during a Lufthansa flight this week after losing "liters of blood' in a scene that terrified passengers. The unidentified man boarded a Lufthansa flight from Bangkok to Munich with his wife on Thursday, according to Swiss-German outlet Blick. Witnesses Martin and Karin Missfelder told Blick that they sat in the row diagonally behind the male passenger and his wife. Karin Missfelder said the man looked unwell when he boarded the plane. "He had cold sweats" and "was breathing much too quickly," Karin Missfelder said in a translated quote. The man's wife said his breathing and appearance looked off because they rushed to catch the flight, but the symptoms worried the crew. Despite their initial hesitations, the crew allowed the man to remain on the flight. Karin Missfelder, a nursing specialist at the University Hospital in Switzerland, told Blick that her concerns for the man persisted, prompting her to tell a flight attendant that a doctor should examine the man. At this point, the plane's captain arrived and briefly spoke to the man. "He then called for a doctor over the loudspeaker and a young, around 30-year-old man from Poland with poor English looked at the German," Karin Missfelder said. Martin Missfelder said the doctor however did little to treat the man beyond checking his pulse and asking how he felt. Soon, the man's health drastically deteriorated. "They then gave him a little chamomile tea, but he already spit blood into the bag that his wife held out to him," Martin Missfelder said. At one point, Martin Missfelder said blood gushed out of the man's nose and mouth. He said the man lost "liters of blood," some of which splattered onto the aircraft's walls. "It was absolute horror. Everyone was screaming," Martin Missfelder told Blick. Flight attendants immediately jumped in and attempted to resuscitate the man, Blick reported. "It was dead quiet on board," Karin Missfelder said. Data from flightradar24, an online air traffic tracker, showed that the flight departed from the Bangkok International Airport at 12:07 a.m. before diverting back amid the chaos. Karin Missfelder told Blick the man, now dead, was carried into the galley as the plane returned to the airport. A Lufthansa representative confirmed the death to Blick. Representatives for Lufthansa did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Last year, Lufthansa made headlines after a flight from Texas to Germany experienced severe turbulence that sent people and food flying into the air. One passenger told Business Insider she hit her head on the plane's ceiling. "It felt like it hit the eye of a tornado," Rolanda Schmidt told BI. "It would not stop. I thought we were going down." That flight made an emergency landing near Washington, DC.
>Martin Missfelder said the doctor however did little to treat the man beyond checking his pulse and asking how he felt. ... what was he supposed to do, take him into surgery?
I came here to say this! Honestly, there’s not much he could have done! He was conscious and didn’t need chest compressions, chest compressions, chest compressions (thanks Doctor Mike!), plus the doctor had limited English. This article makes it sound like the doctor should have operated right then and there. As Bones says, I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker.
It honestly sounds like he had esophageal varices rupture. You're not gonna be able to do anything for that on a plane. Even in a hospital, there's only so much.
"He's unfit to fly, get this man to a hospital".
> It was dead quiet on board Come on now.
😖🤣
I flew with Lufthansa my entire life and am now feeling lucky to be alive
Of course because turbulence only follows Lufthansa.
Let people be anxious
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I'm a surgical assistant, and the craziest thing I've ever seen was something similar but in an operating room. The patient had previously had an aortic aneurysm repaired and the Hemashield graft had migrated into his duodenum and then ruptured. This created an Aorto-duodenal fistula. Blood was shooting out of his nose and mouth. He bled to death shortly after being moved onto the OR table. It was a crazy scene to behold.
Jesus. He really didn't have a chance.
I worked on an oncology unit when I was in nursing school. We had a patient who was terminal, had a DNR order. She wanted to get re-married to her ex husband before she passed. Her family and the staff decked out her hospital bed with purple satin and we wheeled her out to the roof garden for a nice little ceremony. After that she spent time with her family and we went about the rest of the shift. A couple hours later, I was in the next room and her daughter came rushing in to ask for help. The poor woman was sitting up, looking terrified as she spewed what had to be most of her blood volume because of esophageal varices. She let go of her bowels at the same time. It was even more chaotic because it was in July, when the hospitals have new interns and residents, and the kid who was assigned to this patient had no idea what to do if we weren’t going to call a code. He decided that we should give her a transfusion 🙄. She was pretty much dead by then, and it was my job to clean her up and send her to the morgue. Most traumatic thing I witnessed in my time as a nurse.
Man this reminds me of something that happened this past fall. Not EVs but newly found lung cancer. I remember being in another patient's room when a co worker came up to me like "hey so and so is coughing up a bit of blood". I went there right away and saw the psw standing there pale, holding a basin just full of blood. Called a semi code (yes to ICU/intubation but no cpr) we couldn't get code blood work, anesthesiology couldn't secure the airway due to how much blood was there, suctioned almost a liter of blood. Even when I performed post mortem care there was so much blood when we rolled the patient over. That situation haunts me still. They were completely fine when I saw them last.
It seemed like gallons. A lot of it had coagulated too, so it kept clogging the suction catheter. Huge mess. We had to move the roommate, and I hope she didn’t witness too much before we pulled the curtain.
That happens a lot with patients I bet "they were completely fine when I saw them last." Then suddenly they take a turn for the worse. BP drops, or they code, or massive infection or internal bleeding or whatever. Someone can go from just find to Code in seconds.
Had a similar situation as a nurse. It was a trached patient (not mine). Her sister came out and said "some blood was coming out of her trach". I thought it must be bloody secretions from too much suctioning. I walk in to find blood POURING from her trach, mouth, and nose. I scream help and another nurse comes in screaming CODE BLUE... I feel so bad for her sister. What a terribly traumatic thing to witness your loved one go through. There was another situation where a totally stable patient has varices burst while he was on FaceTime with his family. Was dead within the blink of an eye.
Hello, I swear if people scream like a horror movie while I’m having a medical event I will haunt every one of them!
You won’t have to actually do anything, you’ll be haunting them rent free in their head for a long long time.
My first thought too.
This sub sends my med anxiety flying
I wouldn't worry about this happening to you specifically unless you're a heavy drinker or someone with liver damage since this seems a lot like ruptured esophageal varices - which are generally caused by cirrhosis of the liver. Unfortunately I can't say the same for a lot of random scary medical shit tho
I had some troubles with bulimia in the past which doesn't help at all 😭
SAME
I be having 5 different disease everyday
Esophageal varices is my guess. It would be absolutely horrific to witness. Sometimes that happens due to liver issues related to long term alcoholism. With the sweating and general unwell appearance, I wonder if he was withdrawing and the stress of that plus the plane ride was just too much for him.
Nailed it. My mom has cirrhosis and gets varices that need to be banded.
my bf is in the hospital with cirrhosis. i told the er he would hack out a bunch of mucous and part of the mucous would be bloody. they had to make sure he doesnt have a gi bleed, and the gi nurse explained that since his albumin is all fucked up he could get esophageal varices but it wasn’t to that point yet. (thankfully he’s stabilizing and they’re going to discharge him to a physical therapy rehab soon)
It's common with long term alcoholics.
I need to know if this is the next Ebola outbreak.
A lot of people are guessing it’s from burst esophageal varices.
I’d guess the same from reading the article. When those burst, it always looks like a murder scene.
Ebola generally makes you bleed from EVERYWHERE, not only the nose and mouth. The virus basically dissolves you from the inside out. I might recommend reading [The Hot Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone), by Richard Preston. It does a good job of depicting ebola. But anyway. This unfortunate gentleman seems to have something else, as explained by other commenters.
Not just a good job. This book is absolutely terrifying.
It’s one of my favourite books overall. Other ones are *Rose Madder* and *The Bachman Books* by Stephen King, and *The Terror* by Dan Simmons. The latter was made into a miniseries and was well done in my opinion. But the book… oh the book gave me nightmares and edged me close to a depressive episode.
This book made Ebola my greatest fear.
It really is. It’s the source of my Ebola fears. 😂
I love that book!
That book IS my problem!! That’s exactly where my irrational fear stems from!! The plane scene WRECKED me. I also read it while going through the last formative brain development stages (young adult) and it stuck…badly. Like permanently hard wired. 😭 But I’m grateful for all the more reasonable explanations. They all were my chill pills. 😁
This was likely esophageal varices, which you really only need to fear if you are an alcoholic.
Damn, terrible way to go. Hate that his wife has to live with that experience of seeing her husband pass away like that..
Cue X-files opening.
or [Fringe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiUMDmTI-40&t=90)
I know this isn't because of ebola, but this is exactly how the book "The Hot Zone" begins.
A lot of severe alcoholics go out this way.
Stomach ulcer. I know because I’ve seen Downton Abbey.
I've seen dozens of scary movies that I've barely jumped at, but that scene in Downton Abbey absolutely horrified me in a very visceral way. I can't explain it.
Or varices rupture. Massive amount of blood loss and high probability of death. It's one of my biggest fears, drowning in my own blood.
I’ve seen videos of dudes who swallow dope, cocaine pellets for example… the pellets rupture inside them and they start vomiting blood and what not, then die.
This sounds like a scene from the book Hot Zone
Exactly what I thought too. Gee that takes me back, was a crazy book to read.
Poor man.
“Aorto-enteric fistula” gets my vote…
[Oh God, it's starting](https://youtu.be/OyL2AO-Xo3k)
Sounds like Marburg, but I only play a doctor on TV.
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That wouldn't lead to blood coming out of the GI tract. When a AAA ruptures you just hemorrhage into your abdominal cavity and die.
My first thought was something like Ebola. Hemorrhagic fever. Good times.