Woman Caught On Fire After Farting During Surgery Ignites Lasers

If you are someone who thinks farting is a safe part of human nature, you might feel differently after you read what happened to a woman while having surgery at Tokyo Medical University Hospital.

According to Women’s Health Magazine, a woman caught on fire and was badly burned after farting while having laser surgery. The woman was at Tokyo Medical University Hospital in Shinjuku Ward on April 15 having surgery. While the laser was focused on her cervix, she farted, and it caused an explosion.

According to The Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese newspaper that originally reported the bizarre accident, the women was in her 30s and having surgery on her cervix at the time. In the paper, the women who caught fire during surgery after farting remains unnamed and the condition causing her to need the surgery in the first place is also unknown. The paper also did not mention what condition the woman was currently in either.

It is believed that after farting, the laser that was being used to perform the surgery was ignited by the gas. This caused a spark which resulted in the surgical drapes catching fire. A large portion of the woman’s body ended up getting burned, including most of her body from the waist down.

The bizarre accident was investigated by an external committee to make sure it was the farting of the woman during surgery that caused her to catch fire. The report released by the committee determined the equipment that was used during the surgery did not malfunction in any way and was working exactly how it should have been.

Wait, What?

Numerous health experts and the external committee determined the women farting during surgery is what caused her to catch fire. In fact, according to Women’s Health Magazine, two medical experts have stepped forward to explain why this is something that could happen to anyone while having surgery.

Women’s health expert Jennifer Wider, MD, explained that when a person farts the gas that is passed contains carbon dioxide, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and methane.

“A very small part is comprised of bacteria from your intestines (which is what causes the smell). Hydrogen and methane are the components that make the gas flammable.”

The health expert went on to speculate that it was possible the woman who caught fire after farting during surgery likely had a diet that consisted of foods that caused her to have more methane gas in her intestines than other people. This could include vegetables and other foods that tend to give you gas such as broccoli, cabbage, and beans. Wider did go on to point out that someone farting a gas that is combustible like it was in this woman’s case is “extremely rare.”

Marc Leavey, MD, an internist at Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center, agreed with Jennifer Wider that the woman who caught fire after farting during laser surgery should be viewed as an “extremely uncommon” case.

“It would require the patient to pass gas while there was an electric spark…in the area of the gas expulsion. This would be a combination of situations of a low probability.”

Basically, the second health expert believes a person would have to fart at exactly the wrong time in order to recreate what happened to the women who caught fire for farting during a surgery. These experts believed her body just happened to pass gas at the worst possible time, which resulted in a series of unfortunate events that caused her to catch fire.

Both of these health experts agree that what happened to this woman during surgery was a freak accident. They do not believe anyone should worry about catching on fire by accidentally farting during surgery.

How do you feel knowing that, while rare, it is possible to catch fire if you fart during surgery?

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