On friday morning, I got a call from my mom saying that I need to come home immediately because my grandfather was sick. She called me a second time to say that he was throwing up blood. I told her to call 911 right away.
When I got home the ambulance was there. My nana looked so pale. My sis went with him in the ambulance while I drove my mom to the hospital. My khala stayed with my nani.
At the hospital we had 2 close calls. My grandfather fainted because the blood was obstructing his breathing. He continuously vomited blood, both liquid and chunks. While this was happening, all of my khalas and mamas and cousins in North America were scrambling to get here. Alhamdulilah one of my khalas was here already because she was going to go to hajj with my parents.
They did an endoscopy but all the doctor saw was blood. There was severe hemorrhaging. The doctor started giving him plasma, blood, clotting medicines and ulcer meds. He was hopeful that things would be okay, but because my grandfather is 90, he was not sure if his body would be able to withstand such trauma. The next 24-48 hours were extremely tense and stressful. Everyone was reciting Qur’an and making duas. Alhamdulilah, alhamdulilah my nana stopped bleeding internally.
They did a second endoscopy and the doctor believes that there was a scratch or gash in my nana’s stomach and because he was on blood thinner, it started to bleed uncontrollably.
Alhamdulilah my nana came home yesterday. He is still extremely weak due to the huge loss of blood and lack of food/water. We are trying to get home care for him so that he does not have too much difficulty at home. We’d rather have him at home than in a hospital or nursing home.
Please pray for him and the rest of my family. Inshallah Allah swt will answer your duas.
Your grandfather's condition reminded me of a very interesting case that was presented at a gastronomy conference I attended. A young man of 26 was brought to the hospital with extreme internal haemmorhaging. First endoscopy results showed nothing, while the man kept spitting blood. Second endoscopy, showed zero blood and a worm attached to the walls. What was most surprising for the doctors was that humans are not the hosts for this worm and it should not have been there. This particular worm is only found in fish. It was later found after investigation that the man had eaten fish the night before, that had the worm. The worm attached itself to the walls of the oesophagus and punctured an artery causing the internal haemmorhage and later sealed the wound by itself. As humans are not the hosts the worm died on the second day attached to the wound. No further treatment was required and the man was discharged from the hospital.
I pray that your nana is doing better now.
Please do give us an update and let us know what the final diagnosis was. I'm curious how this could have happened.....if in fact there was a scratch or gash, how did it get there?
According to the specialist, all of us get scratches in our stomach. However, in the case of my nana, because he was on blood thinner, the cut in his stomach did not heal and began to bleed uncontrollably. The specialist believes that the blood thinner caused the whole problem and he has taken my nana off of it.
Alhamdulilah, my nana is doing okay. He is able to come to the kitchen to eat. He is still very weak, but alhamdulilah he is in much better shape today than he was one week ago.
