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Discussion

A hernia this bad?? Permanent??

I found this thread on another forum...kinda makes me feel dirty to tell you that, like forum adultery or something. I promise my heart is with allnurses.com!!! ;) The people on the other forum are grossed out, but livid that a man has to deal with pain like this.

I'd love to get your thoughts....also, someone PM'ed me asking if there was any med other than morphine that might could help.

Thanks!!

Tonight, me and my rookie get a call for a possible suicide attempt. We respond and meet with the caller. A 60ish male. He is addicted to morphine and admits it. He has it for chronic pain associated with a bullet wound from 7 years ago. He can't sleep from the pain. He needs so much morphine it has gotten to the point of uselessness. It won't work and he takes it in amounts that would probably kill me.

He says he's sick of the doctors and the pills and if he can't get help... you know the rest.

He actually wants to get off the pills. He has one left and will start DT's shortly thereafter. He knows he can't DT on his own and wants to be in rehab. He'd rather die than DT alone.

We are going to take him to the hospital for mental health treatment to get him into rehab. On the way out of the house I notice he has on a fanny pack under his shirt and I ask him what he has. He lifts up his shirt and I am swallowing my own vomit.

A hernia is when there is a break or tear in the muscular lining of your stomach and your insides start to poke through. He had surgery for his and the shield they put in his belly to hold back the hernia got infected and had to be removed. After a massive infection and numerous surgeries this poor guy is left with a permanent hernia. A huge one, protruding from his belly like a third trimester pregnancy. What I saw when he lifted his shirt was his stomach and intestines outside the muscular lining and held in place only by his skin. It was lumpy and mis-shapen and multi-colored, and covered in scar tissue. Due to the infections he had numerous, large, cratered holes in his skin oozing green puss. His belly was soft and maleable and he grabbed it, moving it around to show me his guts. eek.gif

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Huh?? This doesn't sound right. I would think a plate of some kind could be inserted.

I would think there would be some type of surgery for this man.

What about a pain management consult?

This has the tone of an urban myth. Are you sure it's for real? It doesn't sound like the kind of condition one could live with for very long.

~Mel'

  • Experts

I agree w/Melina.

of course we cannot give medical advice here, so this can only be purely anecdotal and a learning experience. please, members, refrain from giving any advice of a medical nature here at all. this is against terms of service for a good reason.

good luck to that poor soul and hoping the suffering is alleviated somehow, and soon, if the story is accurate.

Well, if this story were some sort of urban legend, I'd think I could find something on it online. Nada. Tried a bunch of different ways, including favorite "hoax finder" sites and searching key words, but nothing.

If this is a hoax, it's either brandy-new or a localized lie. For now, no real indication it's either!

One of my fellow students had an elderly lady with the very same situation during our last semester. Our whole clinical group was invited to inspect her abdomen. On assessment of her abdomen we could literally "see" the intestines beneath the skin and even observe peristalsis. The patient was NOT a candidate for another surgical repair due to some other medical conditions.

The student made the mistake of auscultating for bowel sounds...once :lol2:

I doubt I'll ever see anything like it again.

  • Author

Unfortunately, it's NOT an urban myth. This was copied and pasted from another forum...a Law Enforcement forum. This was an incident that was observed by one of the LEOs on that forum. There were a lot of replies wondering why nothing could be done about that, and not feeling like I could accurately respond, I brought it to this forum.

I'm certainly not looking for medical advice...just wondered if there was any explanation I could give to these LEOs. I would have no reason to NOT believe a Law Enforcement Officer's account...he/she posted to that forum with a "What the ?????" tone.

So, it IS possible to see this....stinks that he's not a candidate for any further surgeries to repair it.

Thanks for your replies!!

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