Green Blood...

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Taxloss, Jun 9, 2007.

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Taxloss Stripper Vicar

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Source: Canada.com

TORONTO -
The green blood came as a bit of a shock to Dr. Alana Flexman and her colleagues when they tried to put an arterial line into a patient about to undergo surgery in Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital.

The 42-year-old man was already a bit of a medical departure. He'd fallen asleep while kneeling, and developed compartment syndrome in both legs. The potentially dangerous condition involves a buildup of pressure in deep muscle tissue - in this case in the legs - and unless the pressure was relieved, permanent nerve damage could have been sustained.

As surgical staff prepared the man for the middle-of-the-night emergency operation, Flexman and a colleague attempted to insert a line into a wrist artery. Arterial lines are used to monitor blood pressure during an operation; any blood that flows when the line is inserted into the artery should be vivid red, the sign it has been oxygenated in the heart.

But in this case, which occurred in October 2005, it was not.

"During insertion, we normally see arterial blood come out. That's how we know we're in the right place. And normally that blood is bright red, as you would expect in an artery," Flexman said in an interview Thursday.

"But in his case, the blood kept coming back as dark green instead of bright red."

"It was sort of a green-black. ... Like an avocado skin maybe."

The reaction in the room? "We were very concerned, obviously," said Flexman, who is training in anesthesia at the hospital.

Flexman and her colleagues report on the unusual case in this week's issue of the journal The Lancet.

Samples were rushed off to the lab, which quickly ruled out a dangerous condition called methemoglobin, in which the hemoglobin in the blood can't bind to oxygen.

While the lab worked, so did the operating team. The man came through the surgery well.

The next day the lab reported it had detected sulfhemoglobin, a condition thought to be triggered by some medications.

"It's so rare that we don't have a perfect understanding how it happens, but some drug donates a sulfur group that binds to the hemoglobin molecule and prevents it from binding to oxygen," Flexman explains. "And that gives it the green colour."

She and her colleagues believe the condition may have been brought on by the man's migraine medication, sumatriptan, which he was taking in higher-than-advised doses, though they can't prove it.
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He's an alien I tell you, escaped from the Men In Black! -lol

#1 Taxloss, Jun 9, 2007
Veincentury Well-Known Member

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not a very smart alien if he fell asleep while on his knees lmao.

#2 Veincentury, Jun 9, 2007
dim8sum ♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪....

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surprised he didnt die considering his blood couldnt carry any oxygen...

#3 dim8sum, Jun 9, 2007
hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

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So is the green blood a symptom or a disease?! Explanations, now!

/channeling HOUSE

Really, probably just a OD on the wrong type of medication, which eventually cause his "compartment syndrome" in the first place...

#4 hiake, Jun 9, 2007
dim8sum ♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪....

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^its a symptom, i guess since it was possibly the medicine that caused it

#5 dim8sum, Jun 9, 2007
Knoctur_nal |Force 10 from Navarone|

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i'd want to bleed golden blood..

#6 Knoctur_nal, Jun 9, 2007
dim8sum ♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪....

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^phone king midas

#7 dim8sum, Jun 9, 2007
Taxloss Stripper Vicar

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Knoctur_nal said: ↑

i'd want to bleed golden blood..
Click to expand...

Your wish can be granted if you let me know how to harm a robot...

#8 Taxloss, Jun 9, 2007
Knoctur_nal |Force 10 from Navarone|

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tax-sorry..u an't harm the bot with the golden blood....then there's the song to soon come about the bot with the golden blood...
dim-i killed him.

#9 Knoctur_nal, Jun 9, 2007
philostrate Well-Known Member

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scary how medication could cause that...

#10 philostrate, Jun 9, 2007
gawain187 Well-Known Member

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I think that is all an accident, Discoveries like these are usually caused by accident. This is still strangely amusing news, to know that blood can go green. I have only seen it red, black but green is the first time.

#11 gawain187, Jun 9, 2007
jiaren777 Member

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r u sure it is a green bloods....~~scary~~~

#12 jiaren777, Jun 9, 2007
BabyRain Doppelgänger of da E.Twin

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@Taxloss:

Does this remind you of My Cousin The Ghost? -lol

#13 BabyRain, Jun 9, 2007
Taxloss Stripper Vicar

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BabyRain said: ↑

@Taxloss:

Does this remind you of My Cousin The Ghost? -lol
Click to expand...

Hehe I totally forgot about that when I was posting that article this morning! So, there's still the option this guy might be a ghost or a zombie.

Man, if this happened at a small hospital, wouldn't the doctors freak when they see that green blood?

#14 Taxloss, Jun 9, 2007
BabyRain Doppelgänger of da E.Twin

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^Totally. They would freak out and start calling the guy a demon or something..

#15 BabyRain, Jun 9, 2007
Taxloss Stripper Vicar

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^... and probably call the local exorcist huh?

#16 Taxloss, Jun 9, 2007
BabyRain Doppelgänger of da E.Twin

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^Or start praying to God.

#17 BabyRain, Jun 9, 2007
nicole Well-Known Member

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What a strange story but glad the man came out of surgery alright.

#18 nicole, Jun 9, 2007
fearless_fx Eugooglizer

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its cuz he was taking large doses of sumatriptan... something like 200 mg a day

#19 fearless_fx, Jun 9, 2007
kontradictions Well-Known Member

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First came green boogers, then green poop, now green blood?! What's next?

#20 kontradictions, Jun 9, 2007

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