One rogue turd’s epic journey to the... chest?
Key Takeaways
Vital Signs
Patient experiencing bowel impaction
At-home remedies ineffective
Frontal and sagittal plane CTs taken
Radiologist Justin Shafa, MD, posted an eye-popping Instagram Reel showing what is likely the worst patient case of bowel impaction you've probably ever seen.
The video opens with a jaw-dropping image: A single piece of stool extending across what looks like the patient's entire torso—from tailbone to lungs. "Taking a look at the sagittal CT, it’s no less impressive. Going from your tailbone (6 inches right here) to your diaphragm," he narrates. That’s some serious poop real estate...
But here’s the kicker: “An enema is not doing anything on this level of poopiness.” And he’s right. This was no simple bowel issue. What we're talking about here is a case of severe fecal impaction—treated with manual disimpaction under general anesthesia.
"The patient was put under so they couldn’t feel it, and then a surgery intern with the smallest hands… manually disimpacted, stuck her hand in, [and] got out as much as she could," Dr. Shafa says in the video.
This is the kind of stuff that makes you appreciate the complexities of the human body—and the sometimes extreme measures doctors need to take to treat their patients. For anyone working in gastro, colorectal, or ER settings, this one’s a wild reminder of what can happen when constipation goes to the extreme.
Related: Can your poop patterns predict how long you'll live?