Splenectomy

Not that this has anything to do with ITP, but I thought I would share an accident that happened to my Nephew. He had an accident that caused an object to go between his rib cage and sever the Splenetic artery. At first he thought he just got the wind knocked out of him and thought nothing of it. It was about 12hrs before he realized that there was something more serious. One of the Anesthetists said he has never seen so much blood in an abdomen. Prior to the Splenectomy surgery the Surgeon told him that he was dying!! Surgety went well and he is home recovering.

Thoughts are with you and your family for a speedy recovery for your nephew. What a freak accident! Glad to hear he caught it and all is going well.

Scary! I'm glad he is okay.

Dean -

Glad to hear that your nephew is recovering , although sorry to hear of this trouble. As you know, ruptured spleens are not uncommon in auto accidents.

Once he is fully recovered you can tease him, if you want, as my boss teased me, that I can now fall from 15,000 feet and survive.

Here is the story about a pilot that fell from such a height, without a parachute, into water and survived, ostensibly, because he had no spleen.

www.veteranstoday.com/2011/05/09/survival-f-8-crusader-pilot-falls-15000-with-failed-chute-and-lives/

Here's a quote

Do I feel lucky? That word doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings. To survive a 15,000-foot fall with an unopened chute is a fair enough feat. My mind keeps running back to something Dr. Rhodes told me in the sickbay of the Los Angeles during those grim and desperate hours.

He said that if I had had a spleen, it almost certainly would have ruptured when I hit the water, and I would have bled to death. Of the 25 pilots in our squadron, I am the only one without a spleen. It gives me something to think about.

He is doing better, but is getting restless. He is an active young man. I was layed up for a week due to cellulitis in my knee. It was tough to just lay around that long.
This pilot was definatly lucky!! Spleen or not, a fall from 15,000ft on water can be deadly, depending on how the impact is. Definatly deadly if impacting on land.