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.”
There are a few things I wish we could really show the public. The first is how brutally savage and undignified CPR really is. And the second is what alcohol abuse really does to a person.
Chronic malnutrition, brain damage, hallucinations, anxiety, internal bleeding, fluid swelling your abdomen like a water balloon, literal ammonia building up in your blood that we treat by deliberately inducing massive diarrhea. That’s not even mentioning esophageal varices and the increased cancer risk.
And then the movie patient pops up and smiles and everything is perfectly restored back to normal instead of, “Oh, we convinced your heart to start beating again, but you’re still unconscious probably because you have brain damage, your kidneys are dying, your blood is acidic, and now we’re gonna put you on a breathing machine. Best wishes!”
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.
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
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.”
There are a few things I wish we could really show the public. The first is how brutally savage and undignified CPR really is. And the second is what alcohol abuse really does to a person.
Chronic malnutrition, brain damage, hallucinations, anxiety, internal bleeding, fluid swelling your abdomen like a water balloon, literal ammonia building up in your blood that we treat by deliberately inducing massive diarrhea. That’s not even mentioning esophageal varices and the increased cancer risk.
Alcohol is a horrifying drug.
I scream, “break the ribs!” every time I see movie CPR haha
And then the movie patient pops up and smiles and everything is perfectly restored back to normal instead of, “Oh, we convinced your heart to start beating again, but you’re still unconscious probably because you have brain damage, your kidneys are dying, your blood is acidic, and now we’re gonna put you on a breathing machine. Best wishes!”
And yet everyone looks at me funny when I see the same and yell “sweep the leg!”
My wife’s aunt died from Cirrhosis of the liver and “so much blood” is exactly what my wife said she saw.
Well that is pretty horrific
Is it possibly related to the cabin pressure?
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.
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.
For real, I need a plausible explanation
Check the comments again, seems like we got it 🙂
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
Yeah, your explanation is probably a better one.
Blood thinners possibly
Ebola virus?
Zingaya
I want to know too
T -virus