Comment by ilamont | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ilamont | Hacker News Reader

If you are interested in medical "hacks" on long-distance flights, the award has to go to two doctors who were on a 1995 British Airways flight from Hong Kong to London when a patient had trouble breathing. They determined that the patient suffered a collapsed lung, so they made an incision in her chest, and used a coat hanger, brandy, and a tube from a medical kit to drain the lung. As I recall the story, there was also a nurse who assisted but I can only find the AP story which references the two doctors.(1)

I also have a relative who is a doctor/med school professor who does a lot of traveling, and has had to assist the crew three times with in-flight emergencies. One was a heart attack, one was deteriorating condition of an unknown cause (the flight was diverted to evacuate this man) and the third was a guy who had intense bladder pains mid-flight which turned out to be the result of downing a huge quantity of beer before the flight and being unable to urinate.

1. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZBxOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=p...

    intense bladder pains mid-flight which turned out to be
    the result of downing a huge quantity of beer before the 
    flight and being unable to urinate

was that due to the altitude or something else?

The stricken passenger had the option of using the restroom, but for unknown reasons could not urinate. They stretched him out on a row of seats which seemed to help the pain, but from what I recall was unable to go until they reached the destination airport. The total trip time was about three hours.

Beyond a certain capacity the bladder is no longer contractile and must be catheterized to urinate. Happens every day in the OR or PACU.

Really? What happened before modern medicine? I'm not being snarky: I believe you.. but a burst bladder would be lethal without access to modern medical knowledge. That seems like a epic fail by evolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe#Death

Now I have something to be paranoid about and will be going the bathroom as much as possible.

Alcohol is a double-whammy because it induces a degree of transient paresis, allowing the inebriated to hold it longer than they should. Just don't fight the urge and you'll be fine.

You should do that in any case. Putting it off is not good for your prostate.

There are lots of epic fails by evolution, is more about quantity than quality so to speak.

An extreme outlier is hardly an 'epic fail'.

Before modern life, we had plenty of opportunity to urinate well before it became a serious problem.

If we were intelligently designed, after all, I think God would call holding it for hours a "user error" and mark it "won't fix".

You died. A burst bladder is quite fatal.

wow! I learned something today.

So just to confirm, you're saying that if (for example) I hold my pee for whatever reason, after a certain point, I might not be able to pee unless they catheterize my bladder?

"but for unknown reasons could not urinate"

Maybe that guy suffered from the Shy bladder syndrome [1].

[1] http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Shy+bladder+...

Huh. According to the article that you linked to about the coat hanger, brandy, and rubber tube: 'The aircraft's medical kit is "quite well-equipped for having babies and people who develop urinary blockages..."'. In fact, it sounds like the tube they used to drain the lung was a catheter intended for urinary blockage. I wonder why they couldn't use such a catheter for this guy; did that kit not have one?

If it progressed to the point of a true medical emergency, I suspect the kit at least had the equipment necessary for a 'quick and dirty' suprapubic aspiration of the bladder (stick a longish needle in from the front, and use a syringe to pull fluid out).

Generally speaking, this is done with an ultrasound, but in a pinch, you could likely just palpate the bladder.

This article has a bit more detail about the procedure itself; it mentions the flight attendants assisting, but no nurse:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=199...

This gives you a whole new perspective on techies who gripe about being roped into fixing the family computer over the holidays because they are "on vacation" and don't want to work!

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