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Flatulence ignites operating theatre fire
New Zealand Herald ^ | 13 May 2006 | Staff

Posted on 05/13/2006 8:48:14 AM PDT by fanfan

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.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Humor; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: fart; fireinthehole; flatulence; flatulencecankill; hatewhenthathappens; ouch; yikes
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1 posted on 05/13/2006 8:48:15 AM PDT by fanfan
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To: Monkey Face; Darksheare; NicknamedBob; Tax-chick; tuliptree76; Dead Corpse; Knitting A Conundrum; ..

Ping!


2 posted on 05/13/2006 8:50:21 AM PDT by fanfan (FR is the best/biggest news gathering entity in the whole known history of the world. Thanks Jim.)
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To: martin_fierro; Tijeras_Slim; dighton

You just can't make this stuff up.


3 posted on 05/13/2006 8:50:44 AM PDT by Toby06 (Make illegal immigration illegal!)
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To: fanfan

You never have a video camera handy when you really need one.


4 posted on 05/13/2006 8:51:18 AM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: fanfan

Take this one with a grain of salt. I have seen a surgeon cause such a fire by wiping the area with ether before cauterizing.


5 posted on 05/13/2006 8:52:26 AM PDT by Marylander
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To: fanfan

He must have been drinking Hefewiezen and and eating hard boiled eggs before surgery..


6 posted on 05/13/2006 8:53:15 AM PDT by cardinal4 (Kerry-Mcarthy in 2008!)
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To: fanfan

Methane is a very explosive gas...


7 posted on 05/13/2006 8:56:30 AM PDT by Irish_Thatcherite (~A vote for Bertie Ahern is a vote for Gerry Adams!~| IRA supporters on FR are trolls, end of story!)
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To: cardinal4

Baked beans.


8 posted on 05/13/2006 8:57:20 AM PDT by Irish_Thatcherite (~A vote for Bertie Ahern is a vote for Gerry Adams!~| IRA supporters on FR are trolls, end of story!)
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To: fanfan
"There was a sort of flashfire and that was it, but it was fairly alarming at the time."

OUCH!!

That's gonna leave a mark!

9 posted on 05/13/2006 8:58:08 AM PDT by MamaTexan (I am NOT a * legal entity *, nor am I a ~person~ as created by law!)
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To: fanfan

I hate when that happens.


10 posted on 05/13/2006 8:58:15 AM PDT by Rebelbase ("Mr. President if democracy is good for Iraq, why not Mexico?" --FReeper, rrrod.)
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To: fanfan
I thought lighting farts was just something we learned to do in college.
11 posted on 05/13/2006 8:58:49 AM PDT by Drango (No electrons were harmed in this posting. Several however, were inconvenienced.)
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To: fanfan
Fire in the hole!
12 posted on 05/13/2006 8:59:44 AM PDT by bwteim (Begin With The End In Mind)
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To: Toby06

Old cartoon;
Customer leaning on the bar while the bartender polishes glasses. The back of the customer's pants are blown out and smoking. The wall behind him is blown through and the jagged edges are charred and smoking. Against the far wall of the next room are the incinerated bodies of an elderly couple still sitting in their overstuffed, singed, smoking chairs.
The bartender says, "Nice rip, George."


13 posted on 05/13/2006 9:00:58 AM PDT by Roccus
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To: fanfan

Oh my!


14 posted on 05/13/2006 9:05:40 AM PDT by tiredoflaundry (Once a Snowflake, always a Snowflake ! Good luck Tony!)
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To: fanfan
CH4 + O2 = CO2 +2H2O

Delta H = -891kJ. (energy released; rxn is exothermic)

But there's incomplete combustion as well--CO, etc.

Of course in this case, we can also add OUCH!!! ;)

15 posted on 05/13/2006 9:05:49 AM PDT by rzeznikj at stout (ASCII and ye shall receive... (Computers 3:14))
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To: fanfan
I happens more than you know, mostly with men who tend to self-induce.




16 posted on 05/13/2006 9:11:09 AM PDT by Lady Jag (Learning to shrug is the beginning of wisdom)
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To: Toby06
So,...did they get rid of the hemorrhoids?
17 posted on 05/13/2006 9:12:03 AM PDT by D Rider
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To: D Rider

No...the flames must have cauterised it pretty well!

OUCH!!!


18 posted on 05/13/2006 9:16:49 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: fanfan

So this is the reason why we shouldn't eat anything the day before surgery.


19 posted on 05/13/2006 9:29:07 AM PDT by fzx12345 (Three lefts don't make a right; they invent one.)
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To: fanfan

We used to do this in college to see who could generate the longest flame. Being drunk helped.


20 posted on 05/13/2006 10:07:42 AM PDT by pabianice
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