Noodles, potato chips, popcorn, egg rolls, melon seeds... These were the food residues that doctors at Taizhou Hospital extracted from a woman who had come in for treatment.
This woman, after eating lunch, continuously ate snacks from 12 PM to 5 PM without stopping, over a span of five hours, and also drank a large amount of water. This eventually led to acute gastric dilatation, necessitating emergency medical care. In the operating room, the food that the doctors retrieved from her stomach filled two basins.
The unconscious woman had been continuously eating for five hours prior...
"She was brought in by her family, I noticed her slim figure but with an extremely bloated abdomen, making me think she might be pregnant," recounted a nurse from the emergency department of Taizhou Hospital last Sunday evening around 8:30. The on-duty nurse said that at the time, the patient looked pale, was drenched in sweat, had noticeable swelling all over her body, and was already unconscious.
Her family explained that she had overeaten.
According to the family's description, the female patient had eaten New Year cake the previous day, which made her stomach slightly uncomfortable.
That noon, after having noodles for lunch, she started watching TV while eating continuously. From 12 PM to 5 PM, she ate non-stop, consuming potato chips, popcorn, egg rolls, melon seeds, and drank a lot of water.
By dinner time, her stomach was severely bloated, and even after taking a walk, it didn't help. She then began experiencing stomach pain, lay down for a while, and started losing consciousness. Realizing the situation was serious, her family immediately drove her to the hospital.
"At this point, regular digestive treatments could no longer help her, so the hospital quickly transferred the patient to the operating room," the on-duty nurse said.
Her stomach had expanded to more than 20 times its normal size.
In the operating room, when the doctors opened up the patient's abdominal cavity,
they saw a "giant stomach" that had inflated to more than 20 times the size of a normal person's stomach. Due to excessive stretching, the stomach walls were nearly transparent. "A normal person's stomach is usually located below the ribcage, but due to the extreme bloating, the patient's stomach had been pushed down to the pelvic area," one of the medical staff involved in the surgery said.
"The patient's stomach was full of large amounts of gas, and the inner walls of the stomach were covered with dense small bubbles. We slowly removed the food residues inside the stomach, filling up two basins before cleaning it out." Among the residues, traces of potato chips, popcorn, and other foods could still be seen.
"The patient should have suffered from chronic gastrointestinal diseases and had long-term constipation symptoms. Based on these symptoms, she had likely been overeating for some time."
On the patient's stomach wall, the doctors also found tiny cracks.
"These cracks can allow gastric juice to flow into the abdominal cavity, corroding internal organs," informed a professional.
Regrettably, despite the doctors' best efforts for two hours, the patient did not survive. The hospital ultimately determined that the cause of death was acute gastric dilatation.
The deceased woman was known to enjoy eating snacks.
The female patient surnamed Shan was 34 years old, living in Linhai. Her husband ran a factory, her brother lived abroad, and she herself was the head of the finance department at the local tobacco bureau, with a very comfortable family background.
After the incident, her family kept their phones off.
To her colleagues, she was known as someone with a good personality and excellent relationships, always smiling, and never losing her temper at work.
One colleague mentioned that Shan was about 160 cm tall and weighed less than 100 pounds, quite slim.
"In my impression, Ms. Shan really enjoyed eating. I heard that when she felt upset, she would eat snacks to relieve stress."
News Insight
The Dangerous Effects of Overeating
How much can a person's stomach hold? Why does overeating lead to stomach rupture? What dangers are posed by gastric juices corroding internal organs?
Last night, I interviewed Dr. Pan Wensheng, deputy director of the Department of Gastroenterology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, with these questions.
Three bottles of mineral water, and the stomach is full
How big is an adult's stomach?
For better understanding, Director Pan used a 500 ml bottle of mineral water as a comparison.
"During routine CT scans, we advise patients of normal height and weight to drink one bottle of mineral water because 500 ml of liquid is enough to expand the stomach fairly well."
If further expansion is needed, doctors will ask the patient to drink two to three bottles of mineral water. "At this point, the patient will feel full." Continuing to drink water makes them feel "bloated."
What happens if they continue drinking?
"Starting from the fifth bottle of mineral water, the stomach has already reached its maximum expansion, clinically termed acute gastric dilatation. At this point, the person feels extremely uncomfortable."
The stomach is like a balloon, capable of being stretched thin
If we compare the stomach to something, Director Pan says it's somewhat like a balloon.
When the stomach is empty, it resembles a deflated balloon, crumpled together, with a thickness of around 1 cm.
As a person starts eating, the stomach inflates like a balloon being filled with air, gradually increasing in volume while the stomach walls become thinner.
"If the stomach is filled with enough food, it will swell like a fully inflated balloon, allowing light to pass through the walls." At this stage, the stomach walls are barely thicker than paper.
"Fortunately, the stomach walls themselves have a certain degree of elasticity, and once the food is digested, it will return to its original size. However, if too much is consumed and the stomach walls are stretched beyond their limit, they lose elasticity." Director Pan explained that at this point, our stomachs become very dangerous.
"Like a balloon, the thickness of the stomach walls is uneven, with the areas closer to the intestines being thicker, and other parts slightly thinner." If food continues to be consumed without restriction, the stomach will burst like a balloon, starting from the thinnest part. Gastric juices will then leak from the ruptured area, corroding the internal organs in the abdominal cavity.
Gastric Juice PH Value 1.5~2.0, Comparable to Hydrochloric Acid
How strong is the corrosiveness of gastric juice? Director Pan gave two examples: fish bones placed in gastric juice will soon become soft; if iron objects are soaked in gastric juice, they will quickly rust, with a corrosiveness comparable to hydrochloric acid.
From online research, the pH value of gastric juice ranges from 1.5 to 2.0, whereas the general threshold for acidic substances is 7, with lower numbers indicating stronger acidity.
Such strongly acidic gastric juice, leaking from a ruptured stomach, is sufficient to severely corrode the internal organs in the abdominal cavity.
Director Pan stated that in such cases, the gastric acid and juice in the abdominal cavity must be immediately flushed clean. "Otherwise, diffuse peritonitis can easily occur, leading to the patient going into shock."
However, even if the patient's life is saved using this method, the damaged abdominal cavity is prone to adhesions, significantly reducing the patient's quality of life.
Solid food takes four hours to digest
Director Pan said that without considering physical conditions, generally speaking, the digestion time of food is largely related to the material of the food.
"Liquid food will be completely emptied from the stomach within two hours; solid food, on the other hand, takes approximately four hours to be fully emptied." Dr. Pan suggested that if you eat hard-to-digest food at noon, it's best to wait 2 to 3 hours before snacking again, and the speed of eating should also be carefully considered. "We have encountered many such cases in clinical practice. In such situations, we recommend that patients seek medical attention promptly, and insert a gastric tube to remove the food." In more severe cases, such as gastric perforation, it's necessary to promptly remove the contents of the stomach, suture the perforations, and thoroughly flush the gastric juice from the abdominal cavity.
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