(Warning: this is gross...). My father
was on a flight from the UK to Germany to do some work, when he developed a nosebleed mind-flight. Which didn't stop. He spent two days working over there, giving lectures and doing research, with tissue stuffed up his nose. The bleeding didn't stop.

He fell asleep on the flight back, and the tissue had become so sodden through that it plopped out; he was only alerted to this when the man next to him woke him up to point out that the front of his shirt was drenched in blood. The bleeding hadn't stopped.

After a day of dripping blood through the house, my mother finally persuaded him to go to the hospital to have it checked out. 8 hours later, with his wife and daughter nearly falling asleep in the waiting room, the doctors came out to tell us that they'd tried cauterising him twice, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. By this point, he'd been feeling rather shit for quite a while, so they decided to keep him in overnight, give him a transfusion, and work out what was happening.

3 days and another transfusion later (the bleeding hadn't stopped), they finally discovered that he'd had an aneurism (sp?) in his brain, caused by the change in pressure as his plane took off. It was pure luck that it was in his frontal lobe, and that the blood was able to escape down his sinuses; if it hadn't been able to escape, it would have built up in his brain, and he would have died. I thank God for the wonderful doctors and nurses in Addenbrookes ENT department, because as soon as it was diagnosed, they knew what to do. It was just going to take some time to do it.

They shifted him over to a private room so he could do some work, and gave him a bucket to spit the blood running down the back of his throat into every 5 minutes or so. Apparently they were also giving him some rather good cocaine, which helped to lessen the bleeding (and stop him feeling quite so shit, I suspect).

Finally, having taken scan after scan of his face, they got to work: they cut the skin of his face around the chin and up to the ears, and peeled it back until his face was skinless (I can visualise it now: a flayed head, with his face lying in folds on his forehead till they were ready to lay it back down again like some fleshy turf).
They then chiselled away the cartilage of his nose (to this day, he has no structure to his nose and can squash it flat against his face in all directions with phenomenal ease) to give easier access to the sinuses. Then they basically just poked a large stapler up there and liberally stapled the bleeding bits of his brain back together. They relaid his face and stiched it back down, and sent him into recovery. He woke up, and for the first time in 2 months, didn't feel sick from having swallowed a load of blood in his sleep. Finally, the bleeding had stopped.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 13:28, 9 replies)

erm..........
Christ on a bike!
(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 13:47, closed)

winner?
Sounds like an hurrendous op and had me squirming reading this. *clicks* Glad he's ok now though!
(Miggyman, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 13:48, closed)

Blimey...
That's truly one of the most horrendous things I've heard.

The face peel thing made my skin crawl so much it almost left the building.

*clicks* for your dad for going through that.
( Moey, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 13:55, closed)

After that dramatic ending
"Finally, the bleeding had stopped."

I couldn't help but go:

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 14:10, closed)

Hurrah for Addenbrookes!
used to work there, all the surgeons were insane alcoholic chain smokers.

Poor dad, story gets a click for definate.
(Halfy By light alone, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 14:33, closed)

agreed, winner!
bob i love your tales but i now feel a bit sick
( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 15:01, closed)

HOLY CRAP!
That is a brazilian to one chance he didn't die. I am truly amazed-I've never heard of anyone being so lucky-he should have dropped dead on the plane.

Wow.
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 15:06, closed)

Ouch!
Your Dad's very lucky - and I'm glad he's better. Has he had to make any changes to his diet or lifestyle?
(Eds Meds Mathskillz=1,Socialskillz=0, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 15:25, closed)

@Edmund
He has to take a cocktail of drugs for his blood pressure (5 pills a day I think), avoid cheese/butter etc.

High blood pressure runs in my family, so we all lead fairly healthy lifestyles anyway (i.e. we don't chow down on deepfried lard butties). To be honest, there was nothing he could really change, as he already was eating plenty of salad, going for brisk walks, and not drinking a lot. It was just one of those freak occurences that (thankfull) had a freakily lucky ending. He also has to have moles zapped off his arms fairly frequently, as they could be pre-cancerous (a result of a ginger doing outdoors work on the equator for several months a year...)
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Tue 12 Aug 2008, 15:30, closed)