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submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world
  • A 63-year-old man died on a Lufthansa flight on Thursday, according to Swiss-German outlet Blick.
  • Witnesses told the outlet the man had blood gushing from his nose and mouth.
  • The witnesses said passengers were screaming at the sight.
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[-] Eczpurt@lemmy.world 169 points 9 months ago

Any idea what kind of health complication causes blood to gush from your nose and mouth? Sounds insane to watch especially when you can't leave the immediate area...

[-] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 354 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Critical care nurse here. The answer is esophageal varices.

It's the same physiological anomaly as hemorrhoids, except in your esophagus. Swollen, fragile veins caused by increased internal pressure. In the case of hemorrhoids, that pressure inside the veins is caused by straining too much when trying to poo. In esophageal varices, the increased pressure inside the esophageal veins comes from blood backing up from a swollen, scarred, and damaged liver. So we often see esophageal varices in end stage alcohol use disorder.

Horror stories abound in emergency departments and ICUs of having to do CPR on a patient massively hemorrhaging out of their mouth from esophageal varices. As soon as nurses I know saw this report, our immediate thought was, "Yep, varices."

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15429-esophageal-varices

[-] sparky1337@ttrpg.network 106 points 9 months ago

I’ll take “Reasons to never drink again for $200, Alex.”

[-] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 101 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

There are a few things I wish we could really show the public. The first is how brutally savage and undignified CPR really is. And the second is what alcohol abuse really does to a person.

Chronic malnutrition, brain damage, hallucinations, anxiety, internal bleeding, fluid swelling your abdomen like a water balloon, literal ammonia building up in your blood that we treat by deliberately inducing massive diarrhea. That's not even mentioning esophageal varices and the increased cancer risk.

Alcohol is a horrifying drug.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 32 points 9 months ago

I scream, “break the ribs!” every time I see movie CPR haha

[-] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 46 points 9 months ago

And then the movie patient pops up and smiles and everything is perfectly restored back to normal instead of, "Oh, we convinced your heart to start beating again, but you're still unconscious probably because you have brain damage, your kidneys are dying, your blood is acidic, and now we're gonna put you on a breathing machine. Best wishes!"

[-] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 41 points 9 months ago

My wife and I have both taken CPR classes together. She has very strict wishes about when I should render aid to her. Basically there has to be a 90% chance of an almost instant full recovery before I'm allowed to help her at all if something goes wrong. She knows the risks and so do I. I'm supposed to give her up so I don't let her down.

[-] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

Hands down the best comment I have ever read. The subject. The setup. The payoff. The layers. Genius.

We are not worthy. It’s downhill from here. Just… perfect!

[-] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

I am from the internet. I'm here to help.

[-] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I was really readying a polite, "No you should definitely render aid first and ask questions later" lecture until your comment made me read that again...slowly.

That setup was subtle and very well done. Bravo @FauxPseudo@lemmy.world

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[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

And yet everyone looks at me funny when I see the same and yell "sweep the leg!"

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[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

There was a recent video I saw where whatever they were using for a body visibly collapsed to dramatize the broken rib thing, and it was horrible to watch. Maybe SkyMed?

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[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

I'm a 911 dispatcher, I've talked people through CPR countless times over the phone, I have very little confidence that most of them were doing it properly because CPR really is pretty brutal, I've taken a lot of CPR classes over the years, and every instructor I've ever had has mentioned that if you're doing it right there's a very good chance you're breaking ribs in the process. Unless you've actually had training and have an idea how rough it can be I doubt that most people are going to do it hard enough out of fear of hurting the patient.

I've luckily never had to do CPR in person myself, although I was once on-scene while it was being performed. I was at a party, someone came inside said they think someone died out front, I went out to see what was going on, came around the corner of the driveway and my friend was already doing CPR on a guy laying in the street who crashed his motorcycle. I know my friend also had CPR training so I let him keep at it, I stood by to relieve him in case he got tired and started counting to make sure he was keeping a good rhythm. I of course know my share of cops, firefighters, EMTs, etc. who have had to do CPR in their line of work, but I don't exactly press them for any details about it, but I talked to my friend afterwards to make sure he was OK, and he talked about how he could really feel the guys ribs popping as he was doing it.

It was also a pretty good illustration of the bystander effect, when my friend got outside there was already one or two other people pulled over with the accident but not really doing anything, not checking on the guy, not on the phone with 911, just kind of standing there. If you asked them, I'm sure they probably would have said they were blocking traffic with their vehicles or something, but that doesn't really do any good when the guy needs CPR immediately.

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[-] baronvonj@lemmy.world 43 points 9 months ago

My wife's aunt died from Cirrhosis of the liver and "so much blood" is exactly what my wife said she saw.

[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl 12 points 9 months ago

Is it possibly related to the cabin pressure?

[-] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Good question. Gasses certainly expand significantly when ascending to the roughly 5000' cabin pressure altitude.

Which is readily apparent as the cabin quickly fills with farts. Yes, that's a thing.

Dissolved gasses in the bloodstream will also be affected by this, though not quite as drastically. Still a thing a though. That's why you don't get on a plane (or even hike above 500m) within 24 hours after you've been scuba diving.

But if you accidently do, or it's an emergency and you need to fly, at least for some flights you can ask the flight crew to raise the cabin pressure so you don't get bent.

So all that said, yes, it certainly could be a possible contributing factor.

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[-] Kiosade@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Just another reason I’m glad I don’t care to drink alcohol… did not know this was even a thing 🤢

[-] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

Well that is pretty horrific

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[-] badmemes@feddit.de 48 points 9 months ago

I forgot the medical term but when you have a REALLY bad liver the blood starts to take other ways to the heart to circumvent it (kollateral paths).

One path is going through your oesophagus so your venes widen very much. With the widening the risk of a rupture starts to increase very much and as soon as it does, there is nothing much that can save you.

I am not saying he got that but the description fits very much on point.

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[-] sizzler@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago

Obviously I doubt this but it's a final phase of ebola.

[-] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago

Nah ebola is more of a oozing bloody mass. Gushing isn't possible because low blood pressure is another complication. Also, late stage ebola this man wouldn't be walking anywhere. Let alone well enough to be allowed on a airplane.

[-] Kalkaline@leminal.space 14 points 9 months ago

Disseminated intravascular coagulation, it's when you get a bunch of clots, that uses up all your platelets, and you bleed out because you can no longer clot.

[-] gibmiser@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

For real, I need a plausible explanation

[-] victorz@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

Check the comments again, seems like we got it 🙂

[-] Maeve@kbin.social 7 points 9 months ago

Ebola virus?

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[-] ExLisper@linux.community 76 points 9 months ago

Still better than flying next to a baby.

[-] Witchfire@lemmy.world 58 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Imagine sitting next to this guy when it happens. That must be fuckin traumatizing

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[-] scarabic@lemmy.world 58 points 9 months ago

Hugs to his family and the poor flight crew who are no doubt traumatized by this and probably having to deal with an investigation, etc.

[-] fsr1967@lemmy.world 46 points 9 months ago

I've seen this movie. It did not end well.

[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I ate a hot dog at the airport in San Juan once. The result is I lost 1/3 of my body weight, but it wasn't blood.

[-] rustyfish@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

I have read horror stories that started like this. I am not sure I want to know what happened.

[-] massive_bereavement@kbin.social 12 points 9 months ago

If I was in the plane, I would be like "yep, it's a coin toss between zombies or the strain."

[-] jalatani@lemm.ee 24 points 9 months ago

I've seen some esophageal varices as a medic and let me tell you those guys are bleeders. Feel bad for people not knowing the situation, it honestly would look like he had something contagious so I can understand the freaking out. People barely survive this with care immediately available in a hospital so he really had no hope once it ruptured.

[-] medgremlin@midwest.social 8 points 9 months ago

That was my thought too. A portal hypertensive crisis following exertion leading to rupture of varices. I can't think of much else that would present like that besides maybe Ebola Zaire or something, but that would have a noticeable prodrome and "coffee grounds" in the emesis.

[-] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 22 points 9 months ago

I'd rather wait for some more reliable sources than Business Insider quoting from Blick. But yeah, scary.

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[-] lanolinoil@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

Time to book an AirBnb in the far away country for 29 days

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 11 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


A 63-year-old man died during a Lufthansa flight this week after losing "liters of blood' in a scene that terrified passengers.

The unidentified man boarded a Lufthansa flight from Bangkok to Munich with his wife on Thursday, according to Swiss-German outlet Blick.

Witnesses Martin and Karin Missfelder told Blick that they sat in the row diagonally behind the male passenger and his wife.

"He then called for a doctor over the loudspeaker and a young, around 30-year-old man from Poland with poor English looked at the German," Karin Missfelder said.

Data from flightradar24, an online air traffic tracker, showed that the flight departed from the Bangkok International Airport at 12:07 a.m. before diverting back amid the chaos.

Last year, Lufthansa made headlines after a flight from Texas to Germany experienced severe turbulence that sent people and food flying into the air.


The original article contains 457 words, the summary contains 138 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 11 points 9 months ago

you guys ever read The Strain?

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this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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