A MAN’S bout of self pleasure ended in a potentially deadly heart emergency, as he suffered a torn artery after masturbating.
The 59-year-old man called an ambulance after getting a tight jaw and tingling in his hands following his solo sesh.
Doctors were baffled by his symptoms, at first fearing he had a severe case of sepsis.
But a battery of tests revealed he had in fact suffered a tear to his aorta, the body’s largest artery that carries blood from the heart to the body, medically called aortic dissection.
This resulted in severe aortic regurgitation, a medical emergency where the blood flows backwards into the heart.
Aortic dissection is a rare condition that can be life-threatening if not identified and treated promptly.
People suffering the health emergency usually experience a sharp, ripping pain in their chest or upper back, as well as shortness of breath, heavy sweating, confusion and severe stomach pain, the Cleveland Clinic states.
But unusually, the patient in question suffered no chest pain, shortness of breath, loss of consciousness or nausea as would be expected in health emergency of this type.
Only about 6.4 per cent of patients with aortic dissections don’t experience chest pain, doctors from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai hospital in New York – who oversaw the man’s case – wrote.
“As such, painless dissections are atypical presentations, more likely to be associated with increased mortality,” the said in a report published to the journal Clinic and Experimental Emergency Medicine.
It’s also unusual for the man to have suffered the tear following masturbation – although he’s not the first to do so.
Another report details the case of a 60-year-old man who experienced a “ripping” pain in his chest, neck and back in the hours after indulging in a bout of masturbation.
The 59-year old patient had a past medical history of high blood pressure, which puts extra strain on the heart, blood vessels and other organs and raises the risk of experiencing heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.
He also had a rare form of chronic pancreatitis, inflammation of the pancreas caused by the immune system attacking the organ, as well as chronic renal insufficiency – a long-term condition where the kidneys don’t work as well as they should.
But the day before he suffered his health emergency, the man had been on a three-mile jog.
After masturbating, the man described experiencing “lightheadedness, a tingling sensation to both hands, and jaw tightness”, according to the report.
Feeling unwell, he decided to lie down and unintentionally wet himself.
He decided to call an ambulance after this episode of urinary incontinence.
Test conducted at the hospital revealed he was suffering from extremely low blood pressure and a slow pulse.
Medics feared he may be suffering from sepsis – a life threatening overreaction to an infection – and gave the man a dose of antibiotics.
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Though his condition seemed to improve, the patient reported feeling dizzy when trying to walk and he underwent further monitoring and tests to his heart.
At this point, an ultrasound scan revealed that he’d suffered a type A aortic dissection – a tear starting on the upper part of the aorta closer to the heart.
This can be immediately life-threatening and usually requires emergency open-chest surgery to repair or replace the first part of the aorta where the tear started.
The man did in fact undergo surgery for an aortic graft replacement, which involves replacing a damaged section of the aorta and aortic valve with a tube.
He’s understood to have since recovered from his ordeal.
It remains unclear why he suffered a tear to his aorta following masturbation, though medics said his chronic pancreatitis appears to be an “important risk factor”.
Medics dwelled on the fact that the patient didn’t experience any pain from his aortic dissection, stressing that this was unusual.
“This case reinforces that aortic dissection can be present without pain, including the classic presentation of tearing chest pain or back pain,” they wrote.
