Medical things you didn’t know?

[Emptychairdoasolo]

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?

Your eyes actually see everything upside down, your brain just rotates it the right way up so we perceive it correctly! Isnt that bizarre?

A lady died in the hospital bed next to me ,first thing they did was open the window.

We also lost a family friend years ago who died on holiday. I remember crying when his wife said after he passed the nurse opened the window to let his soul go back home. It’s such a beautiful act of comfort for families in their worst time ❤️

I didn't open the window when DH died, guess that means his soul is still in the house.

@Snowpaw wow, organ donation is amazing. Is it the nhs who send the letter to say that the parts have been used? Can the receiver request your families details?

Can't remember the username but why can only 1% of organs be donated?

@JanetandJohn500 💐hope💐hope you are okay and wishing you dad all the best

My aunt died of cancer off the heart in her forties. They said it was brought on by exposure to asbestos years ago.

I've just read so many replies to you confirming that nurses really mostly do open the window for the soul. My lovely old dad died in a hospital room on his own about 5 in the morning 10 years ago. It's always killed me thinking he went on his own with no one caring. This has just brought me so much comfort to imagine maybe the nurses cared enough after he'd gone to do something like this. Am sitting here sobbing my heart out like it was yesterday. Thank you for this.

Great thread - At age 30 you hit maximum bone density - it’s all loss from there in! (thanks Dr friend for writing that in my 30th birthday card)

1. you need a heart beating person to donate organs, it's strict criteria for obvious reasons
2. more people can donate soft tissues such as skin/bone/cornea
3. a high BP will kill you eventually
4. a severe headache during sex is an emergency
5. urine pregnancy tests in hospital are the same as you can buy over the counter

It is the reason. We do it as a part of the process after someone dies- not sure why, just always have, to free their soul. In my experience it’s done whether a nurse believes in it or not.

Nobody who was born blind has ever gone on to develop schizophrenia.

Isn't that just amazing? Nobody quite knows why this is.

Oh they definitely do. Arose from superstition, now many just do it as a ritual to demonstrate respect for the deceased

Another window-opening nurse here! I don’t have a religious or spiritual bone in my body but it just feels ‘right’ to open it. I’ve never performed last offices with anyone who hasn’t gone straight to the window before doing anything else. I chat to the patient while I’m preparing their body too, telling them when I’m going to turn them etc.

I recently discovered that you can see your own nose at all times but your brain filters it out! I spent the rest of that day trying to forget about my nose 😂

Rigor mortis is temporary. You then go back to being floppy/pliable before the body begins the long, slow process of breaking down.

It surprised me how quickly rigor mortis set in though, took just a couple of hours for my mum's hand to be completely frozen as I held it whilst I waited for siblings to arrive.

You have 2 days of food in your intestine.

A specific energy frequency leaves your body through tubules, this has been labelled your soul by scientists who found it.

That you can actually be allergic to exercise.

Wow. Is that true about blindness and schizophrenia? I mean, that’s remarkable and statistically very unlikely so there must be some meaningful association and biological mechanism at play there.

That is such an interesting fact. How strange that nobody has been able to figure out why!

Definitely accept sedation. They don't need to rush or fight a panicking person if they're sedated.

Read the consent form carefully. Some people suffer from damaged teeth with procedures like this.

I come from a family of nurses, they have lots of little rituals that they carry out when someone dies. Opening the window to the the persons soul free is one, they'll also talk to the person who's passed. In care homes, when laying a person out they might place a flower in their hands...Nurses learn to read the signs when a person is going to die imminently and will keep a close eye, pop in as much as they can. In better times for the nhs, one would often sit with the person to keep them company until they'd gone.

Also - when they reach the end, many people seem to demonstrate an element of control over their passing. Its been commonly observed for decades (if not longer). While some people, even if comatose, seem to hang on until their loved one arrives to say goodbye, many others can only go when they're alone and will hang on until that brief window of time when they're by themselves. Even if that's just when their loved ones or the nurses have popped out of the room for a few minutes. It seems that they need to be alone in order to let go of this world.

I hope this brings you comfort, if you ask around you'll find so many people who work with those at end-of-life corroborate what I've said. X

That Amelia is the complete absence of one or more limbs, not a modern girls name.

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.

HRT patches can get hot in some scanners.

Many years ago we'd put pennies on a dead body's eyes. They'd hold the eyelids closed (and give the dead person coins to pay the boatman to the other side).

We'd also bind the jaw closed until rigor set in. The window would be opened briefly on passing to allow the soul out.

I've no idea if it's done today.

So sorry for your loss op, I’m sure the nurses will have kept checking on him, he wasn’t alone and he knew he was loved.
💐

Cannulas are generally OK!

Cannulas in childbirth ARE a bitch however, because they are like hosepipes 😂 I was told by a Dr last year (when I was anxiously waiting for my toddler to get one) that they are freakishly big so they can pump blood into you quickly if necessary.

If you ever need another cannula, don't panic, they aren't ANYWHERE near as bad as childbirth ones.

And if you ever need another childbirth one, ask for gas and air... I was fine after a few puffs and im a wimp 🤣