Caution: a Violent Cough Can Be Very Dangerous!

Fighting colds, infections, influenza and similar medical calamities seem commonplace to most of us. I, for one, have always tended to tough it out and would reach for over-the-counter helps while I have followed the "get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids" thing. For me, a trip to the doctor for antibiotics has always been a measure of last resort.

Why I won't be so cavalier about this in the future

I received my first call about my nephew on Tuesday, when I learned that he was being air lifted to a hospital in Chicago because he needed heart surgery that could only be performed there. Details were sketchy since distance was a factor for all family members involved in the information pipeline.

They could not perform surgery that night because of the condition of his kidneys, but a six-hour operation began on Wednesday morning. My next report came Wednesday afternoon when I learned that they had repaired the heart and then had stopped the operation, because the circulation to my nephew's lower body and to his organs was so impaired that they couldn't do any more through surgery at that time.

Yesterday's call that I received sounded somewhat more positive, as he had breathed briefly without a ventilator, although he was placed back on it right away.

Today I learned that one kidney is gone for sure, and they don't know about the other one, plus he may have suffered some brain damage because of all of this. He remains heavily sedated and on a ventilator.

So what caused this trauma?

My nephew's heart was found to have been normal when the surgery was performed. However, what the surgeons relayed to the immediate family was that the entire problem was very likely caused by the severe coughing that my nephew had been experiencing for a number of days, and that the coughing had been so intense as to cause a long tear in the aorta. Who knew such a thing could happen? Because of the tear in this main blood vessel, there was loss of blood to the lower extremities and to the kidneys, liver, etc.

The aorta is the main artery that goes up through the heart. It is shaped like a candy cane, since it curves around and then goes back down to the lower body, branching off to the legs, etc.

Perhaps they will never know for sure if this was the cause, but surgeons surely would not have put forth this theory unless they felt that coughing had been the most likely cause for the damage to my nephew's body.

Our family is cautiously optimistic that the most critical time is now behind for my nephew, although he certainly has more than his share of problems still ahead of him.

I just wanted to post this article since it is the cold and flu season, and it does seem to be a logical thing to not let prolonged, heavy coughing go untreated for a period of time. From now on I know that I will be more cautious than I have been in the past! I wish good health to all of my readers - it certainly is critical to our having a full measure of joy in our lives.

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