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?

And studies have shown that severe hearing impairment actually increases the risk of psychosis, and that severely hearing impaired who develop schizophrenia or hallucinatory psychosis frequently report seeing disembodied hands performing sign language in front of them.

Nobody quite knows why this is, either.

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

So is that the nearest proof that we have a soul do you think? I’ve always thought the soul was a concept of self that our brain ‘tells’ us we have, but that a soul, as such, was definitely not anything that scientists have discovered.

I trained as a nurse more than 50 years ago. We were taught when a patient died to move them to a side ward(if they weren't already in one), straighten their limbs and cover them completely with a sheet, open a window and leave them for an hour, before returning to perform last offices. I always did this throughout my career, despite being a dyed in the wool atheist. Whatever one's religious beliefs it's an act of respect, and I taught all my nursing students to do the same.

IIf there's no window, just leave the door open a crack.

CPR is violent and more often than not (even in a medical setting with all the equipment and expertise) unsuccessful.

Refusal to agree to a DNR does not mean that doctors will continue with a futile attempt to resuscitate a patient if they deem it to be futile, even if the family has requested every effort to be made. I wish more people knew this.

I’ve thought of another (courtesy of operation ouch!) when you sneeze the majority of the germs and liquid comes out if your mouth!

Yep. I’m still haunted by my first ever resus, on a 90 year old lady who had been admitted with a troponin of >50,000, no DNAR. She waved good morning to me during handover and five minutes later, I was breaking all her little ribs when she arrested. It was brutal and the doctor leading the arrest kept calling for cycle after cycle. 45 minutes of torturing that poor lady’s body when it should have been called from the start 😞

what happens if you die on the operating table? Do they just sew you back up without repairing anything inside?

Basically yes, they will attempt resuscitation for a period of time with your abdomen open, and if it is deemed futile to continue, then your abdomen will be closed without anything further being done.

It’s often referred to in theatre as an “open and close”. It sometimes has to happen even if you don’t arrest on the table, once opening someone up it can be apparently quite quickly that the damage/problem is beyond repair, so they will close the patient back up and they will go back to the ward for end of life care.

@Kelpi
"Hang on a minute... So someone can be alive but brainstem dead, and they get taken to surgery and just... Carved up? In what order? Does that kind of make the person who takes out the organs feel like a murderer?! "

I'm sure it's not intentional, but please think about the sensitivity of your wording. For those of us that have made the decision to donate our loved ones organs rather than just switching off the machine this is a hard process. You know they're going to theatre, you hope there is no semblance of pain in the dark depths of medicine we don't yet understand, you wonder with each passing minute if their heart has now stopped. I'm going to bed now with the image of my family member (who was only 44) being 'carved up' instead of her being treated with dignity as she passed the gift of life to 3 others.

CPR is violent and more often than not (even in a medical setting with all the equipment and expertise) unsuccessful

I was going to say this. I was told by a hospital doctor that when a crash team is called to patient in hospital, CPR only works 10% of the time. That was a few years ago, so the stats might have evolved since then.

It can be an incredible survival tool, but its a last ditch attempt to save someone and when done properly you can expect broken ribs. Sometimes even when a person is successfully kept alive with cpr, they are still going to die and do as soon as resuscitation has finished.

Another window opening nurse here. I’ve seen this practice occur in many hospitals, without even being discussed. I think it’s more of a respectful gesture to the person, rather than a religious one. It does originally stem from setting the soul free though.
I have seen many examples of some level of autonomy in passing away as PP said. Either waiting for someone to turn up and visit, or waiting to be alone. I’ve had a notable hand squeeze, a heartfelt ‘thank you’ or a specific ‘look’ from many EOL patients that lead me to believe they knew they wouldn’t see me again. Always gives me chills.

Yep its not the nicest of things to imagine but just have to remember the gift of life they're giving and be so so grateful for their decision

The ventilator depends on if they're taking the heart and lungs as we are asked to turn it off and they'll clamp the trache once inflated so that the lungs are full. Otherwise after abdo organs are removed

If we do a cardiac death organ donation (when the illness is unsurvivable but don't meet brain dead criteria then we withdraw treatment in thr anaesthetic room with family present and wait for the heart to cease before certifying and reinserted the breathing tube for lung inflation
This version is less likely to result in donation as each organ has a specific time deadline between severe low bp and retrieval and unfortunately many don't die quick enough to fulfil their wishes to donate

She did a truly wonderful thing. Please try not to let thoughtless posters sully that memory for you organ donation surgery is performed with the utmost respect for the donor, they are still treated just as they would be if they were on the table with the aim of preserving their life. ❤️

@Bogofftosomewherehot you did a great thing.

On labour ward we use the biggest cannula available (a grey one). The reason for this is so we can get large quantities of fluid/blood/whatever into you very quickly in an emergency.

Stay on the MLU where cannulas aren't routine... or even better, stay at home! Don't let us meddle with you and create the emergency in the first place. Only joking (ish)

As a nurse I can assure you it's a superstition of ours. Soul goes out the window.... we don't want you hanging around on the ward winding us up.

Other superstitions we have.... never say qu**t and working a full moon is always horrendous....

This is called Kehr’s Sign. It’s caused by free blood in the peritoneum irritating the diaphragm and phrenic nerve which causes referred shoulder tip pain.

It’s also a huge red flag to watch out for with ectopic pregnancy.

Also, for cardiac patients, never trust an urgent need for a poo. If they insist, you’d better have that crash trolley right by the toilet because they may well be heading for cardiac arrest. The vagus nerve is a fickle old thing.

Thank you for all those who care so much for their dying and dead patients. My DB and I were on the way to the hospital after getting a call telling us to come straight away. By the time we arrived, we had missed our darling Mums passing by about 10-15 mins. Even in such a short time, in her side room off an incredibly busy ward, the nurses had tidied all the medical paraphernalia out the room, taken out Mums tubes, IVs, syringe driver and oxygen mask, combed her hair, tucked her into bed nicely, placed a vase of flowers on the bed table, closed the curtains and got a tea set and some biscuits set out for us. The whole ten weeks leading to her death had been a traumatic, hellish nightmare but I will never forgot those final acts the nurses did for her and for us. They meant so much. Some things aren’t big or heroic but my goodness they are so important and never forgotten by the bereaved. It’s bringing tears to my eyes typing this, and Mum died in 2004.

And during an orgasm, the hormones that are released make your cervix contract, causing it to repeatedly dip in and out of the vagina.

I have to ask: what emergency does a severe headache during sex presage?

It's not an urban myth. My dentist did at one point put his knee on my chest (more liver area and part of chest if I'm honest) simultaneously breaking my jaw whilst trying to extract the remaining bits of a hollow wisdom tooth. It's not good to see the blood drain from your dentist's face when we both heard the loud crack. I changed dentist and sued (for breaking my jaw not the knee on the chest).

Sorry to ask, but what is qu**t? If you can’t say the word, what does it rhyme with?

Quiet :)

Ah, I see. Thank you.

Diet the Q word is never to be uttered or you can guarantee that all hell will break loose.