Man With 40-Pound Manure In His Abdomen

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This 8-foot long giant megacolon came from the “Balloon Man,” an unfortunate fellow whose lifelong constipation stemmed from Hirschsprung’s disease. (Photo: Mütter Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

20-year-old man died with 40 pounds of manure in his abdomen after years of suffering with irregular bowel movements and constipation.

J.W, a 20-year-old man died with 40 pounds of manure in his abdomen. The patient’s medical history revealed that his problems began well before the age of 2. He often suffered with irregular bowel movements and constipation in addition to an enlarged abdomen. Similarly, as he grew older, the size of his abdomen continued to increase along with the severity of constipation. By the age of 16, he would go for a month without any bowel movements.

At 20 years of age, he was employed by a freak show in Philadelphia, exhibited as the “Balloon Man”. He was found dead in his bathroom attempting a bowel movement, a decade later.

To this day, his 8 foot megacolon, dried and stuffed with straw and fabric is on display in Philadelphia, at the Mütter Museum. The museum is owned by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia which is one of the oldest professional medical organisations in the United States.

Although this man’s condition was a medical mystery many years ago, it is now known to be caused because of congenital aganglionic megacolon, also known as Hirschsprung’s disease.

Hirschsprung’s disease

Hirschsprung’s disease is an abnormality in which the nerve fibres (autonomic ganglia) fail to develop in the smooth muscle wall and distal part of the colon. This either weakens or stop peristalsis in the colon and results in chronic constipation. The disease affects 1 in every 5,000 live births and is four times more common in males. The condition was first described in 1886 by Danish paediatrician Herald Hirschsprung.

References

Medical mystery solved: The case of the ‘Balloon Man’ https://cfapi.mdlinx.com/internal-medicine/article/2573

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Dr. Aiman Shahab is a dentist with a bachelor’s degree from Dow University of Health Sciences. She is an experienced freelance writer with a demonstrated history of working in the health industry. Skilled in general dentistry, she is currently working as an associate dentist at a private dental clinic in Karachi, freelance content writer and as a part time science instructor with Little Medical School. She has also been an ambassador for PDC in the past from the year 2016 – 2018, and her responsibilities included acting as a representative and volunteer for PDC with an intention to make the dental community of Pakistan more connected and to work for benefiting the underprivileged. When she’s not working, you’ll either find her reading or aimlessly walking around for the sake of exploring. Her future plans include getting a master’s degree in maxillofacial and oral surgery, settled in a metropolitan city of North America.

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