A Chinese man is recovering comfortably and safely in hospital after doctors removed an 11-pound stool from his colon and rectal cavity. The man went to see doctors after suffering from constipation…for the past decade.
The man, who has not been identified as of press time, paid a visit to the Second People’s Hospital in Chengdu–China’s fifth-largest city–to complain of severe stomach pain.
When standard tests revealed nothing, doctors went for the trusted X-ray machine, and found the culprit: a massive stool blocking the man’s intestine and responsible for swelling his colon to twice its normal size.
The X-ray further revealed that the man’s heart had shifted to the right side of his body, in order to compensate for the swollen colon.
Doctors diagnosed the 27-year-old patient with congenital megacolon, which is a thing, and operated immediately. The result of the operation was the removal of an eleven-pound stool, which had been growing, based on doctors’ estimates and the patient’s recollection of stomach pain, since around 2005.
Here’s the real kicker: The colon sufferer had been to Second People’s Hopsital before, to complain about the same ailment–but doctors sent him home, as they were unable to diagnose the cause of the severe intestinal pain coming from the man’s intestine. Presumably, they had neglected to do an X-ray…or offer him a bowl of breakfast cereal.
(Photo credits: Stomachache one, two via Flickr)
