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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
Biffatcrafts · 05/07/2023 00:04

I just learned that undiagnosed or recurrent UTIs (particularly in the elderly) can cause mental changes, which can be mistaken for dementia or alzheimers. Maybe everyone else already knew that, but it sure was news to me.

Allmyghosts · 05/07/2023 00:07

Weird, have never heard of opening the window, despite working on a ward where people often died. Perhaps they did it and I was just very unobservant. I was watching a podcast the other day when they were talking about treatments they did for epileptic people, mostly dividing the hemispheres of the brain. Apparently people are pretty much normal/the same afterwards.

GodspeedJune · 05/07/2023 00:10

Gilead · 04/07/2023 23:56

An operation has been performed that has cured some specific types of OCD. It is looking increasingly like it’s not a mental illness, but a physiological one. In order to look at something the brain has to perform four tasks in a specific order. Should one step be missed often enough, then this can create one of the forms of OCD.

@Gilead What is the name of this operation or do you have a source please?

wandawaves · 05/07/2023 00:10

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

Weird. I have never done this, never worked with anyone who has done this, and I've actually never heard of it. I'm not in the UK though, so may be cultural differences.

Whatthediddlyfeck · 05/07/2023 00:10

Spidey66 · 04/07/2023 21:30

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

I doubt that's the reason. I think it's more likely to prevent any smell.

It really is the reason…a body will be removed long before there’s any risk of smell

Tinysoxx · 05/07/2023 00:12

One in ten people would have something odd-looking on an eeg trace.

Delia123 · 05/07/2023 00:12

Biffatcrafts · 05/07/2023 00:04

I just learned that undiagnosed or recurrent UTIs (particularly in the elderly) can cause mental changes, which can be mistaken for dementia or alzheimers. Maybe everyone else already knew that, but it sure was news to me.

Yes, especially if someone becomes confused over a short space of time. Always rule out uti before thinking about dementia.

Cressidasmum · 05/07/2023 00:19

Spidey66 · 04/07/2023 21:30

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

I doubt that's the reason. I think it's more likely to prevent any smell.

No it's absolutely to let the soul out. I was shown this by an nursing sister when I trained in the 1980's and I insisted on doing it throughout my nursing career 😁

Housekeeperbatcocoa · 05/07/2023 00:20

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 04/07/2023 21:28

I had no idea about the fish scales!
if that happens to me, i am 100% telling my children it’s because there is some mermaid in their ancestry.

Show quote history

It's not fish scales but fish skin and it's amazing for burns.

ww.newsweek.com/fish-skin-treat-burn-wounds-healthcare-1797024%3famp=1

Fish Skin on Burns

How fish skin is being used to treat burn victims

The skin of Atlantic cod and tilapia can be used as a skin graft for serious burns, allowing the skin to heal with little risk of immune rejection or disease.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/fish-skin-treat-burn-wounds-healthcare-1797024%3famp=1

HollaHolla · 05/07/2023 00:20

I was with my grandad when he died. The nursing staff were so wonderful with him; we were asked to move to the family room, and they washed his face and hands, sorted the sheet/his PJs, took the canulas out, and the oxygen prongs away, and left him looking so peaceful. I hated to see him with his false teeth out, and they put them back in, and so he looked more like himself.
We sat with him for as long as we wanted (it was about 2am on a Saturday morning), and they said we could call and come back any time we wanted, right up until he was taken away by the undertaker.
Sadly, he wasn't eligible to donate any organs/parts at all, but I have no doubt they would have been so respectful of him whilst doing that too.

I have lost the feeling in about a third of my foot (from a spinal nerve injury), and although I use it well, I don't feel what's happening to it. I've actually broken my baby toe three times in the last 10 years (because my control of my foot is a wee bit off), and I don't feel anything when I do it. It's the weirdest feeling, as I can see when I've hurt it, but can't feel it. Super weirdy.

bonfirebash · 05/07/2023 00:24

My mum nursed for years and always told me about opening the window. When she died last year, I opened the window for her and it was suddenly really important. I also got the chaplain for a blessing although they didn't manage to arrive before she went

The staff came in (she was in hospital) as I had gone out to say she had died and said "oh you've opened it already" and put her hand on my arm

Catpuss66 · 05/07/2023 00:26

Spidey66 · 04/07/2023 21:30

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

I doubt that's the reason. I think it's more likely to prevent any smell.

Actually old school training we were taught to open the windows to let the soul leave. Sign of respect.x we also never had red & white flowers together sign of death. Now you don’t have flowers at all.

Pinkespressomachine · 05/07/2023 00:27

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.

That beautiful description has made me tear up. Thank you for all that you & others in healthcare and nursing do.

determinedtomakethiswork · 05/07/2023 00:33

I can't help thinking a lot of people on here. Have a very strange idea about souls.

tt9 · 05/07/2023 00:33

TomAllenWife · 04/07/2023 21:22

Oh lots

At post-mortem they put all the organs in a clinic bag in your abdomen and sew you back up

Donor transplant is brutal but amazing

Children don't have knee caps

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

in my thirteen years I'm hospital medicine I have not seen a single nurse open a window after a patient has passed away (and unfortunately due to doing a fair amount of elderly care medicine, there were a lot of deaths)... most hospitals I've worked in don't even have windows that open due to security reasons.

Mother87 · 05/07/2023 00:38

Chinese heritage here - when my Dfather passed, we opened the window & lit Temple Incense in the room - to help his soul on it's way, along with the curls of smoke rising into the air🥹 (we also had a Taoist/Buddhist ceremony 49 days later to "ensure" that he was definitely well on his way)

Dilshin · 05/07/2023 00:39

My Dad passed away last year and I was privileged to be with him in his final hours. His brother passed away suddenly 3 months before him, they were very close. The health team opened the window in his room before Dad died, to let his soul out and travel on to the next world. Soon after Dad passed, I went outside to ring my family. When I went out, two robins landed beside me. I got a strong sense that it was my uncle telling me that all was well and that he’d look after my dad. I will never forget that moment and the comfort it brought to our family.

tt9 · 05/07/2023 00:39

Ragged · 04/07/2023 21:36

It's endless, actually, the interesting stuff.
I have a relative who was declared dead while their heart was still beating. How weird is that? What a strong heart. Their pulse was long stopped by then and consciousness longer still gone.

really sorry for your loss. just to clarify not possible to have no pulse with a strong heart beat (except when the heart is in bypass). possibly you were seeing the ventilator trace or the ecg trace on the monitor, doesn't equate to a heart beat unfortunately. sounds like brainstem death, very sorry you had to go through that, always very hard because on the outside your loved one might look complete fine.

MsCactus · 05/07/2023 00:41

notagain2020 · 04/07/2023 21:38

I think that is very similar to the 'dentist kneeling on my chest' to take a tooth out. A type of urban myth.

Show quote history

I watched this happen to my brother! (Dentist put his foot on my brothers shoulder in order to wrench out his tooth)

I couldn't believe it when I watched it. Admittedly it was a while ago now - my brother is 34 and was 16 at the time.

Pinkespressomachine · 05/07/2023 00:45

Bogofftosomewherehot · 04/07/2023 23:33

@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.

I wanted to say that your response is very courteous. Hopefully the person who wrote it will reflect on their words. I am certain your loved one will have been treated with dignity and care - don’t let that clumsy comment make you believe otherwise.

ComeTheFckOnBridget · 05/07/2023 00:46

tt9 · 05/07/2023 00:39

really sorry for your loss. just to clarify not possible to have no pulse with a strong heart beat (except when the heart is in bypass). possibly you were seeing the ventilator trace or the ecg trace on the monitor, doesn't equate to a heart beat unfortunately. sounds like brainstem death, very sorry you had to go through that, always very hard because on the outside your loved one might look complete fine.

Show quote history

It is possible for a pulse not to be detectable at the standard pulse points while the heart continues to beat however. The person doesn't even need to be unconscious. I've been with a person who had a pulse test wasn't detectable (by someone trained to find it) in their neck or wrist while they were speaking - they had a heart condition and were whisked off to hospital pronto.

tt9 · 05/07/2023 00:47

YouAndMeAndThem · 04/07/2023 21:40

You can't be declared dead until the heart stops beating. The attending doctor has to listen for heart sounds for one minute and cannot declare death until this is absent.

Show quote history

definitely can be dead with a heart beat unfortunately. this is called brain stem death and will only be confirmed in itu by at least one consultant and one registrar. the patient undergoes a series of tests which are repeated independently. this is when a patient is on a ventilator and unable to breathe for themselves I.e. Will die soon as we stop the ventilator and have lost all brain function. but their heart is still working.

ComeTheFckOnBridget · 05/07/2023 00:49

Biffatcrafts · 05/07/2023 00:04

I just learned that undiagnosed or recurrent UTIs (particularly in the elderly) can cause mental changes, which can be mistaken for dementia or alzheimers. Maybe everyone else already knew that, but it sure was news to me.

Yes, I've seen this several times. Can send people totally loopy! Definitely worse in the elderly but my friend experienced one like that in her 20s...Also watch out it for in people with a dementia.

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