IBS patient survives holes in colon, stomach

Emergency Colon Surgery

Rebecca was quickly stabilized and admitted for testing. A CT scan revealed air in her abdomen, which doctors suspected was caused by holes in her colon and at the top of her stomach, a serious medical emergency.

“When a hole forms in this part of the gastrointestinal tract, it can cause stool and other intestinal fluids to leak into your abdomen, creating a life-threatening situation,” explains Stuart JohnstonStuart Johnston, MDMD, trauma surgeon on the medical staff at Methodist Richardson. “Emergency surgery was her only choice.”

When Dr. Johnston and his team opened Rebecca’s abdomen, they found that her colon had perforated. They also discovered a hole in her stomach near the esophagus.

“The surgeon told me that she was so constipated that her stool had turned into rocks,” Jeff says. “One of them poked through the side of her colon, and it just spilled the contents into the lower part of her body.”

Doctors cleaned out her abdomen and removed a small portion of her colon. But repairing the tear in her upper stomach proved more complicated.

“Leaking stomach fluid makes the tissue around the tear like wet paper, which prevents us from being able to stitch it closed in this condition,” Dr. Johnston says.