Man Sneezes Out ‘Loops’ of His Large Intestine During Breakfast in Florida Diner 

A man who had recently had abdominal surgery sneezed out parts of his large intestine while eating breakfast with his wife in a Florida diner.

What happened to him is known as evisceration, a “rare complication of abdominal surgery,” says a report on the case in the American Journal of Medical Case Reports.

The man, 63, had recently had a cystectomy, which is surgery on his bladder, with the incision site being sealed with surgical staples.

He had gone to his urology clinic that morning for a check-up, where “his wound appeared well-healed and the overlying staples were removed. He and his wife went to breakfast to celebrate,” the report says.

However, during breakfast he sneezed “forcibly” — followed by a coughing fit — which caused the surgical site to rupture.

“He immediately noticed a ‘wet’ sensation and pain in his lower abdomen,” the report says. “Looking down, he observed several loops of pink bowel protruding from his recent surgical site.”

The man considered driving himself to the hospital, but was worried he could injure himself, so his wife called for an ambulance. 

The paramedics discovered that a 3-inch section of his incision had been ruptured, with “large amounts of bowel” protruding from it

Although the paramedic first considered manually pushing his intestines back in, she was concerned she could injure them; Instead, she kept the exposed bowel moist with a pad soaked in saline fluid, and kept it close to his body by wrapping him in gauze.

He was admitted to the hospital, where “vital signs were within normal limits.”

“No evidence of injury” was noted on his bowels during surgery, where his intestine was put back inside his body, and the wound was re-sealed with a “variety of sutures”

And 6 days after sneezing his intestine out, the man was discharged from the hospital, following what was described as a “a reassuring abdominal examination.”  

The report said the man suffered from the tearing of his surgical site, a complication known as wound dehiscence. It is “a well-known complication,” which the National Library of Medicine explains is “a partial or total separation of previously approximated wound edges, due to a failure of proper wound healing.”

However, “evisceration through the abdominal surgical site after cystectomy is poorly described,” the report said, adding that there were only seven ​​known cases of evisceration following a cystectomy.

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