Finally know about someone who bled to death

[Guest]

I have been looking for years for someone who bled to death from a cut and I finally heard about one.

A man with a history of depression stabbed himself in the chest 3 or 4 times (might have put a second one right in the same hole as another). His wife was gone for less than an hour on an errand. When she came back he was in a pool of blood. It was probably another half hour or more before he got to the hospital because he lived in a rural area. He was DOA. No autopsy was done but the coroner said that it was obvious that the knife either pierced the aorta or vena cava.

 

[tommy]

What a shame. Hard to blame that on Coumadin.

 

[Karlynn]

Not exactly what I think of when I think of a "cut".

 

[LUVMyBirman]

I think he was a goner, regardless of the Coumadin.

 

[hensylee]

This is so sad. I agree that he was going, no matter how. Maybe he's in a more comfortable place.

I can't imagine how he managed this, tho. It's hard to stab YOURSELF, I think.

 

[Guest]

I hope you all realize that I posted this to demonstrate the serious nature of the wounds that someone has to undergo in order to bleed to death.

Lets have no more talk of only using electric razors or stopping warfarin for a week to get your teeth cleaned.

 

[catwoman]

This is so sad. I agree that he was going, no matter how. Maybe he's in a more comfortable place.

I can't imagine how he managed this, tho. It's hard to stab YOURSELF, I think.

Ann:
Yeah, it's hard to stab yourself, but ... about 20-25 years ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published an item about a man who used a chain saw. Because he left a note, officials ruled it was a suicide. Co-workers collect such items out of the paper, wire services and newspaper websites (newspaper folks are just weird animals).

At any rate, injuries like those would probably be fatal, warfarin or no warfarin. I feel for his wife.

 

[Dustin]

I hope you all realize that I posted this to demonstrate the serious nature of the wounds that someone has to undergo in order to bleed to death.

Lets have no more talk of only using electric razors or stopping warfarin for a week to get your teeth cleaned.

Copy that. With such horrific "slicing and dicing" I doubt whether an INR of 0.5 would have saved the poor bugger. So when you get stabbed like that nothing will save you I guess, regardless.

 

[Marty]

Sharon and Lovenox

Sharon and Lovenox

He's not dead yet, but currently has not returned to consciousness. Was his bleed into the brain caused by Lovenox? As some Israeli doctors Monday morning quarterback he needed only a few weeks rest for his little completely resolved TIA. In other words, is this a case where an unindicated anticoagulant caused irreparable harm?

 

[Kathy Canistro]

Bleeding?

Bleeding?

Hi Al

I was terrified when I was told if I nicked myself shaving that I could bleed to death? I have cheated with care and used a razor, so far I have bben lucky.

The scare tactics further proove that no one in my area really understands coumadin.

Thanks for the example.

Kathy

 

[Guest]

You not only cheated BUT you cheated death by shaving with a razor!!!!!!!!

Back in the early 1800s Abagail Adams (wife of 2nd Pres.) had a blood letting of 1 gallon. She said that she felt tired for a few weeks. Do you suppose the person who told you this really believed that you might lose more than a gallon due to a razor nick?

 

[tommy]

I choose an electric because of convenience. For me, small nicks take longer to heal and have ugly scabs in the meantime.

Maybe I never learned to do it right. At this point, never will.

 

[Michaelena]

I have to share what my rehumatologist said to me concerning my soft tissue bleeding. My ultimate choice is to lower my INR, increasing my chance of stroke or bleed to death. This is strong speculation on his part, it has not been established that the coumadin is the cause of my problems, but I thought it was interesting. I felt much better reading your post, however after much thought my choice was bleeding to death.

 

[Guest]

Michaelena,
With a choice like this, I think you need a consultation with a hematologist. Try to find one whose principal practice is hematology, not oncology. Too may of them forget the hematology part because oncology keeps them so busy.

 

[Nan]

Well, that was an interesting case! Clearly, we are not going to bleed to death very easily from using Coumadin....unless we manage to somehow sever a major blood vessel in which case we would undoubtedly bleed to death whether or not we were on an anti-coagulant!

It's too bad that many of our coumadin/warfarin managers don't understand this. They seem to panic at the slightest thing.

Hopefully medical schools are teaching a bit more about anti-coagulant management these days....although some of the folks that have gotten stressed over some really minor things were quite young (I am thinking of an ER doc who told me I was Coumadin Toxic when I had an INR of 4 and wanted me to hold for 2 days).

Al, can't we get you out there teaching?

 

[Georgia]

It seems that as more and more people are on coumadin at younger ages, and more find this website, doctors are going to be dragged (perhaps kicking and screaming) into learning about managing coumadin. If each of us can force one doctor to "manage" it correctly, that knowledge will spread. And if each of us refuses to be mismanaged (like, "no, I won't hold"), the word will spread. We have to be responsible for busting the coumadin myths, and Al's been guiding us. It's really scary to defy doctors when we've been raised to regard them as just short of gods in their knowledge; but this site has (oh, I hate this word) empowered us to do just that.

 

[Nan]

Georgia, you are so right, at least for me. It is VERY difficult to "defy" a doctor. I have really struggled with this. Without this site, I can only imagine what might have happened to me.

 

[twinmaker]

I've never been scared about bleeding to death from a cut or anything like that but...I did almost bleed to death internally. Granted, I didn't realize what was going on at the time. For hours, I paced the floor with horrible abdominal pains but kept thinking it was just "gas". My abdomen kept getting larger and larger. I had bruises all over my body but what did I know? It was only a couple of years after being put on Coumadin and obviously, I wasn't real educated about it. Anyway, after going to the ER, I passed out and was rushed into emergency exploratory surgery. An ovarian cyst had ruptured and I was bleeding into my abdomen. I had had my Protime checked earlier that day but didn't have the lab results back until the next day (a day too late). We found out later that my protime was way out of whack. The surgeon told my family after the surgery that they almost lost me during the operation. Hard lesson to learn...but after that situation and a lot more years, I'm certainly more educated about Coumadin. Of course, one bad experience out of 24 years of using Coumadin isn't all that bad, right? I've never stopped using a razor though, even when nurses still tell me not to shave my legs. I mean...get real! And you should see me in the kitchen using my gin-su knives!!! LINDA

 

[cocoalab]

Man Linda what a scary experience that must have been.

I have a hard time imagining you shaving your legs with Giinsu knives Maybe an electric shaver would be easier.

 

[Karlynn]

Was that back in the "good ol' days" of PT #'s instead of INR? What a frightening experience that was.