A woman from Jiangsu, China, had to undergo emergency surgery to remove 5kg of undigested food from her stomach after excessive eating led to life-threatening complications.
According to Sing Tao Daily, the woman, identified as 41-year-old Ms Zhang, had a long-standing habit of overeating.
She began experiencing abdominal bloating and discomfort about a month prior but did not adjust her eating habits.
Two weeks later, her symptoms worsened, with increasing abdominal distension and vomiting.
A few days before her hospitalisation, she reportedly consumed a whole persimmon cake, which triggered severe stomach pain.
According to Jimu News, Ms Zhang was initially taken to a local hospital, where doctors suspected a severe case of pancreatitis.
They advised that she be transferred to a higher-level medical facility for urgent treatment.
By the time she was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, she had already fallen into a coma.
Doctors discovered that Ms Zhang’s stomach had expanded dramatically due to a duodenal obstruction, resulting in extreme gastric distension.
The excessive stretching had led to multiple areas of gastric wall necrosis and perforation, with stomach contents leaking into the abdominal cavity.
“The patient was in septic shock and faced an imminent risk of acute kidney failure. Multiple organ failure could have occurred at any moment,” said Dr Guo Qingsong, the associate chief physician who led the operation.
Dr Guo added that Ms Zhang’s vital signs were extremely unstable and could not be stabilised with medication alone, making immediate surgery the only option.
During the operation, the surgical team removed over 3 litres of food from Ms Zhang’s stomach, including large amounts of pickled vegetables and bean sprouts.
They also extracted multiple gastric stones, some as large as 6cm.
Due to the severity of her condition, Ms Zhang underwent a total gastrectomy, where her entire stomach was removed.
Source: Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University on WeChat via Sohu
The team then reconstructed her digestive tract, surgically connecting her oesophagus directly to her small intestine to allow food to pass through.
Following the six-hour operation, Ms Zhang was transferred back to the ICU for intensive monitoring and further treatment.
She is expected to be discharged after the Chinese New Year period.
Also read: 24-year-old mukbang celebrity in China dies during livestream, stomach found full of undigested food
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Featured image adapted from Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University and Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University on WeChat via Sohu.
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