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Original poster

Medical things you didn’t know?

738 replies

Emptychairdoasolo · 04/07/2023 21:09

Just watching a medical drama and wondered what happens if you die on the operating table? Do they just sew you back up without repairing anything inside?

but also had me thinking what other medical things didn’t you know until you maybe experienced them or learned?

OP posts:
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8
MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 19:23

BadNomad · 05/07/2023 01:52

That's interesting. I'm in Northern Ireland so you would think our rituals/traditions would be similar. Maybe that does happen more in the country. I just know it's not something that was done on any of the wards I've worked on around Belfast.

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I am not in Ireland but my grandmother refused to have her bed facing the door.

Whatevergetsyouthroughthenight · 05/07/2023 19:23

titchy · 04/07/2023 21:39

You can't get heart cancer.

I am afraid you can, I know someone who died from it.

pimplebum · 05/07/2023 19:27

I've was always trained to open a window as a mark of respect and to let the soul fly free , especially fitting if the person has been confined to a bed for a while

Wotwotwotwotwot · 05/07/2023 19:28

Changingmynameyetagain · 05/07/2023 18:15

Your ovaries aren’t attached to the fallopian tubes. And you can ovulate on your left side and the egg can enter the right fallopian tube and vice versa.

You what now? So the egg gets released by the ovary and just swims along to the fallopian tube?

BadNomad · 05/07/2023 19:31

Wotwotwotwotwot · 05/07/2023 19:28

You what now? So the egg gets released by the ovary and just swims along to the fallopian tube?

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The fallopian tube travels to the ovary that is going to release an egg. It's what happens in women who have both ovaries but only one fallopian tube.

pimplebum · 05/07/2023 19:33

*YouAndMeAndThem
Oh really? 15 years of nursing and I didn't know that! I thought they wouldn't declare death until the heart stops

On 99% of circumstances yes. This is basically for people ventilated in ICU who have had a catastrophic brain event that has led to brain death. Some will go on to organ donation. They are as well looked after (if not better!) than anyone else in the places if have worked until the family can have their time and the ventilator is switched off . It must be very hard for families

Yes it was hard, and I willnever ever forget the transplant nurses at the royal London absolute angels on earth

But we had to wait for her heart to stop before she was taken to the transplant team next door

Treesnbirds · 05/07/2023 19:35

FelicityBeedle · 04/07/2023 23:25

Not a nurse but a healthcare, I was taught in my training to open the window, it’s not a superstition so much as a ritual.

For anyone interested, when someone dies (expected) this is what tends to happen in my hospital.
We’ll lay them flat in the bed, arms by their sides and a pillow under their head with the window open. We gently close their eyes and mouths with a bit of gentle pressure.
Family can visit in this time.
After half an hour or so (minimum) to let them settle we go to them, we remind them who we are and let them know what we’re going to do.
We get warm water and soap and give them a good wash, taking out any needles or catheters and some sorts of dressings, chatting all the way. We clean their teeth or dentures, and if they’ve got perfume give them a squirt of that
We dress them in the nicest of their own clothes they have with them, or a shroud if they don’t.
They then get put in something to be transferred to the mortuary, and before they go, pretty much everyone I’ve worked with has given their hand a last squeeze and said goodbye.

😭 This is so lovely. Thank you so much ♥️

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 19:35

Echio · 05/07/2023 08:04

I don't really believe in 'souls' or anything but I find it really odd about the opening the window - I find it strange the idea a nurse would want to release it without the family 'consent'? What if the family want to say goodbye to the 'soul' and arrive to find it 'gone'? I'm not expressing myself well but it's just really odd to me. Tbh I'm really not sure what I'd feel if a nurse did this to one of my family - like maybe the deceased person wouldn't have wanted that because they didn't believe in it? I don't know - got me in a bit of a pickle, I don' think it's right to put superstition or ritual belief on to someone who doesn't have a choice?

The soul doesn't necessarily vanish forever, you can still speak to it, it is very helpful for those that believe in reincarnation. It may not even leave straight away so there is no need to worry.

Changingmynameyetagain · 05/07/2023 19:35

Wotwotwotwotwot · 05/07/2023 19:28

You what now? So the egg gets released by the ovary and just swims along to the fallopian tube?

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The fallopian tubes have little finger like projections that kind of sweep the egg to encourage it to enter.
It’s called Fimbriae.

Emotionalsupportviper · 05/07/2023 19:38

HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas · 05/07/2023 15:10

So I’m a midwife rather than a nurse (but did a month on a general ward as part of my training) so sadly am more au fait with stillbirth/baby loss rather than adults dying.

Last offices for a baby are slightly different and to some extent will depend on the gestation of the baby. Parents will usually but not always spend quite some time, possibly days with the baby. During that time we will take photos, hand and foot prints, maybe a lock of hair if there is hair and parents want this. So we make a memory box for the parents with these little items in the box.

we might dress the baby depending on parents wishes (and gestation), smaller babies tend to get dressed in a little robe which comes from a special company who make them.

When the parents are ready to say goodbye we will take anything that the parents want putting with the baby, so this might be photos of them photos of siblings, a teddy. We tend to have little pairs of teddies now and we can put one with the baby and give the other to the parents so they have the matching teddy that baby has.

once the parents have gone we will put the baby in a wooden lidded casket to be taken down to the mortuary. I will always make a “nest” around the baby using rolled up towels as they often look so small in the box and I worry about them sliding around. I will always talk to the baby when doing this and remind them how loved they were. I will always personally take the baby to the mortuary myself. I don’t like calling for a porter to come. I think it’s one last thing I can do for them so that someone who “knew” them takes them on that journey out of the maternity unit.

That is so lovely Atlas. It's wonderful to know that people like you are caring for these little ones even after they've passed, and providing such comfort to the families.

ohwhatafunday · 05/07/2023 19:53

I will always personally take the baby to the mortuary myself. I don’t like calling for a porter to come. I think it’s one last thing I can do for them so that someone who “knew” them takes them on that journey out of the maternity unit.

This has me in tears, @HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas

I am so glad people like you are there are that time.

MichelleScarn · 05/07/2023 20:06

Same here. @HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas that will have given such comfort to those who've so sadly experienced this loss.

HushHushDarling · 05/07/2023 20:28

Wowzel · 04/07/2023 21:40

As a nurse i concur with opening the window to let the soul out - challenging in a department with no windows!

You can get mesothelioma of the heart.

HarpyValley · 05/07/2023 20:28

ploopypleepy · 05/07/2023 16:42

When they do a post mortem, they peel your face off your skull, really.

True. I used to work in the CJS and had to deal with scene of crime and post-mortem photos in murder/manslaughter cases. I could cope with 99% of them, no matter how gruesome the death, but the PM photos showing the skull exposed with the face all crumpled/folded up below…the skull was one thing but those poor squashed up faces (even though I knew it had only been temporary, for the duration of that part of the PM, before they were carefully stitched back together again)…<shudder>

beatingtheodds · 05/07/2023 20:31

pecanpie101 · 04/07/2023 22:00

It only takes one asbestos fibre in the lung to create mesothelioma (a terminal type of lung cancer) many years later.

This is true.

I have peritoneal mesothelioma. Diagnosed at 23. It's shit.

LollipopViolet · 05/07/2023 20:54

@HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas your post is just so beautiful and comforting, thank you for sharing. My mum is a nurse and my grandma was a nurse for 40 years, so I'd heard about the process for adults, and in the back of my mind knew that things must be different for babies. I'm glad there are people like you looking after them, and their parents.

My contribution is that today I learned you can have 2 types of cancer at once - not just in terms of a primary and secondary, but 2 completely different cancers that aren't related. My grandma has ovarian cancer, and has just also been diagnosed with bowel cancer. For some reason, it never crossed my mind that it was possible.

The squint surgery thing - I had that surgery at 14 and EVERYONE told me this! I didn't believe it but everyone was adamant!

crazeekat · 05/07/2023 20:55

if there is still a live beating heart living on in another persons body, is the donor really wholly dead?

noodlezoodle · 05/07/2023 21:02

You can have birthmarks on your internal organs, not just your skin.

Mother87 · 05/07/2023 21:30

@MonumentalLentil - There's food involved at several stages I suppose & maybe it's slightly different in some countries...We had several plates of Chinese food & a "young" photograph at his funeral. In past times, that food would have been eaten by the monks - visitors would bring food (that was what happened with my Amah/grandma in the "home" country) In the UK - there's an adapted version with as much "authenticity" as possible. That's my understanding of it - so as many rituals as possible are followed.

In the home country - fresh food is regularly left on the grave & incense burned

We burned paper money, papier-maché models of houses/cars & "earthly things" for him to be comfortable in the after-life (😭now... but I do a lot of that)
And there's more ritual "joss"'paper burning/food at the 49 day ceremony & now, yearly Temple blessing... Sorry, am waffling now

MrsMarzetti · 05/07/2023 21:31

EweCee so glad they finally managed to get the pain under control. I hope you are now wellFlowers

DustyLee123 · 05/07/2023 21:33

I once nursed a man whose bowel had passed through his hernia into his testicles.

adviceneeded1990 · 05/07/2023 21:35

BadNomad · 05/07/2023 19:31

The fallopian tube travels to the ovary that is going to release an egg. It's what happens in women who have both ovaries but only one fallopian tube.

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Yep! Many women who lost a tube post-ectopic are told this. The tube just floats across 😆

Gwenhwyfar · 05/07/2023 22:02

gemstoneju · 05/07/2023 09:48

Christ. If you've got a tooth growing at an angle, chances are the root will be too. I can testify to this, I had a terrible extraction a of wonky canine tooth .Not quite knee on the chest, but the dentist had to get a colleague in to help. Gum shredded and just hanging in a little flap for days. I don't know why they put us, and themselves, through this horror show.

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They tried to do mine with a local. I told them to stop as it hurt too much so I had to go around looking like a hamster for two weeks with the work not having been done and come back to get the GA. When I had my pre-op for the GA they noticed I'd lost weight. Of course I had - they'd left me unable to eat properly for weeks!

Gwenhwyfar · 05/07/2023 22:10

AD1996 · 05/07/2023 13:24

That you can’t catch a cold from being out in the cold. Probably sound thick as shit but I honestly didn’t know until my LO caught a cold lol

Obviously it's a virus, but you are more vulnerable to it when you're cold and there is research to prove this.

Justaddalittlespice · 05/07/2023 22:30

AppleDumplingWithCustard · 05/07/2023 04:34

Normally a general anaesthetic for amputation. Sometimes using a spinal block if the patient is a poor anaesthetic risk ie elderly with respiratory/cardiac disease.

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I'm in hospital currently on vascular wars and all the ladies where awake for amputation I was.shocked