Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Be Careful with Flatus; It Could Be Dangerous
Topic Started: May 13 2006, 02:51 PM (303 Views)
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Flatulence ignites operating theatre fire

A patient's "gas leak" is being blamed for bringing a hospital operation to a fiery end.

The man suffered minor burns in a brief but "dramatic" operating theatre fire which is believed to have been caused by flatulence, The New Zealand Herald reported today.

The man was at the Southern Cross Hospital in Invercargill to have haemorrhoids removed and was singed in the "exceedingly rare" incident involving his own gas.

"This was thought to be flatus containing methane igniting," a health source told the newspaper.

"There was a sort of flashfire and that was it, but it was fairly alarming at the time."

Haemorrhoids are swollen veins in the lining of the anus. If they protrude outside the body and become troublesome, they can be removed by surgery, which in the Invercargill case employed an electrical "diathermy" machine. A hand-held tool for cutting tissue and cauterising to stop bleeding, it produces heat and can spark.

Southern Cross is releasing little detail other than confirming an "electrical fire" occurred on March 22 and that it commissioned an independent forensic scientist to investigate.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
John D'Oh
Member Avatar
MAMIL
George, excuse my ignorance, but isn't most electrical equipment used in operating theatres designed to be non-ignition capable due to the flammable gases used by gentlemen such as yourself?

(John D'Oh, who doesn't know much about operating theatres or anaesthesia, but does know quite a lot about making electrical equipment non-ignition capable :whistle: )
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Interesting question, John.

The electrocautery unit works by passing a current from the tip of the surgeon's tool through the patient's body to a plastic pad that completes the circuit. Since the heat produced by the current is a function of the area through which the current passes, a small area (the surgeon's handpiece) creates enough heat to cauterize bleeding blood vessels, and the current, as it passes through the body, when it reaches the large plastic pad is dissipated over a large area.

Now, if the surgeon's tool is held just a bit away from the tissue, current can still arc to the body, and if there is a, well, flammable gas, it can ignite. This is a real danger with tubes placed in the airway that are oxygen rich, and so forth. Methane, being flammable, as anyone who's ever lit a fart can attest, is the perfect setup for this.

More than you ever wanted to know about farts, but, there you go.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kenny
HOLY CARP!!!
How can I use this to up my MPG? -_-

Stick a spark plug up my @ss and I'll have a 5-cylinder. :P

Let's not talk about rods or pistons though.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Larry
Member Avatar
Mmmmmmm, pie!
All I know is if someone were to stick an electric probe into my asshole I'd fart too.

Of the Pokatwat Tribe

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bachophile
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
Quote:
 
passing a current from the tip of the surgeon's tool


i beg your pardon?????
"I don't know much about classical music. For years I thought the Goldberg Variations were something Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg did on their wedding night." Woody Allen
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Radu
Member Avatar
Senior Carp
George K
May 14 2006, 01:51 AM
Flatulence ignites operating theatre fire

A patient's "gas leak" is being blamed for bringing a hospital operation to a fiery end.

IMHO it's a fake. Recently, another "similar" story was published in our local papers, but I found it is a very old legend - at least from 2002:

---------------------------------------------------------------
April 18, 2002

Great Balls of Fire!

No beans before surgery!

Patient having op on backside breaks wind, causing fire

A Danish man having surgery on his backside broke wind and
set his genitals alight.

A surgeon was removing a mole on his backside with an
electric knife when the man broke wind,
lighting a spark.

His genitals had been washed with surgical spirits and
caught fire.

He's suing the hospital for pain and suffering and loss of
income.

He says he had to take extra time off work and can't have
sex with his wife. The hospital says it was an unfortunate
accident.

"When I woke up, my penis and scrotum were burning like
hell," the man told Danish Newspaper BT.

Surgeon Dr Jorn Kristensen said: "No-one considered the
possibility the man would break wind during the operation,
let alone that it would catch fire. It was an unfortunate
accident."

The 30-year-old patient said: "I've had to be booked off
work for longer than expected and, besides the pain, I can't
have sex with my wife."

The operation which was being carried out at the Kjellerups
hospital, was aborted immediately after the accident.

Reports say it's unlikely the doctor will face disciplinary
action.

Posted Image
------------------------------------------------------------
"Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!"
The modern media has made cretins out of so many people that they're not interested in reality any more, unless it's reality TV (Jean D'eaux)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
bachophile
May 13 2006, 06:23 PM
Quote:
 
passing a current from the tip of the surgeon's tool


i beg your pardon?????

OK, OK...

"From the handpiece of the electrosurgical cautery unit."

(no "unit" jokes allowed! :tsktsk: )

Is that better?


(btw: thanks for your kind words over there)
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bachophile
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
got your PM. thought it appropriate to make the point in public.

and in spite of just knowing how to intubate and ventilate, u r a nice guy.

now, as for my tool....
"I don't know much about classical music. For years I thought the Goldberg Variations were something Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg did on their wedding night." Woody Allen
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
bachophile
May 13 2006, 06:31 PM
and in spite of just knowing how to intubate and ventilate

You should see me with a spinal needle or an internal jugular catheter.... :sombrero:
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
JBryan
Member Avatar
I am the grey one
Some inside baseball going on in this thread but us lay people, so to speak, are uncertain as to what gets one on base let alone scoring.

Intubating, hyperventilating (did I get that right?), My long held belief that all mechanics use tools and all physicians are tools (attorneys would never get their hands dirty) is looking pretty close to correct.
"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne


There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it".


Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody.

Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore.

From The Lion in Winter.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bernard
Member Avatar
Senior Carp
Oh I don't about this. MythBusters did a segment on flatus. They debunked the myth that it can be ignited. The amount of methane in flatus is apparently miniscule.

What's the real truth?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Larry
Member Avatar
Mmmmmmm, pie!
Sorry for Mythbusters - when I was in high school I lit a friend's ass good. He loved to pull a prank when we were out camping by jumping out of his camping bag and farting at you. He'd get completely naked, then jump out doing a handstand like a reverse frog leap and land on his knees with his ass turned at someone and fart a huge fart. One night I just happened to be holding a cigarette lighter when he made the unfortunate decision to make me the subject of his prank. Just as his bare rear end got in position for the fart, I held up the lighter and struck it. He let go of a huge fart just as I did it. Maybe Mythbusters should have used Mike as their subject...... he blew a 2' blue streak, and singed off a huge area of hair....
Of the Pokatwat Tribe

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
AlbertaCrude
Bull-Carp
The methane is nothing- its the H2S that's deadly.


Pickled egg anyone?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bachophile
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
The average human releases 0.5 to 1.5 litres (1 to 3 U.S. pints) of flatus a day by flatulating 12 to 25 times[1][2][3]. The primary constituents of flatulence are the non-odorous gases nitrogen (ingested), carbon dioxide (produced by aerobic microbes or ingested), and hydrogen (produced by some microbes and consumed by others), as well as lesser amounts of oxygen (ingested) and methane (produced by anaerobic microbes)[4]. Odors result from trace amounts of other components (often sulphur containing, see below).

Nitrogen is the primary gas released. Methane and hydrogen, lesser components, are flammable, and so flatulence is susceptible to catching fire. Not all humans produce flatus that contains methane. For example, in one study of the feces of nine adults, only five of the samples contained bacteria capable of producing methane[5]. Similar results are found in samples of gas obtained from within the rectum. The gas released during a flatus event frequently has a foul odor which mainly results from low molecular weight fatty acids such as butyric acid (rancid butter smell) and reduced sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell) and carbonyl sulfide that are the result of protein breakdown. The incidence of odoriferous compounds in flatus increases from herbivores, such as cattle, to omnivores to carnivorous species, such as cats. Flatulence odor can also occur when there is a number of bacteria and/or feces in the anus while being expelled.

"I don't know much about classical music. For years I thought the Goldberg Variations were something Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg did on their wedding night." Woody Allen
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply