This rather shocking photo was snapped in
November 16th by a spectator at
the collegiate power lifting championships at Pennsylvania State. The
unfortunate competitor, who expressed a plea to remain anonymous,
remembered to surgeons that he was "stuck" at the bottom of a personal
best attempt in the squat lift when he "sort of pulled his stomach in and
pushed extra hard, at the same time as trying to complete the lift." He
remembers a loud popping, splattering noise then a fierce stabbing pain and
then not being able to move from the squat position. He remained in this
position for about half an hour, since trying to stand caused him
overwhelming agonizing pain.
Paramedics arrived and applied anaesthesia on
the spot and carried him to an ambulance. He was rushed to surgery, where
surgeons described the trauma as an "explosive and aggravated prolapse of
the bowel". Meanwhile it was revealed that the weight was removed from his
shoulders at the time of the incident by two "spotters" on either side of
the lifter. The third spotter who was standing behind the lifter was
unfortunately sprayed with fecal matter at the time of the incident. This
spotter promptly fainted when he realized the extent of the injury to the
lifter, who was a personal friend. This compounded the task of first aid
officers who were at a loss as to how to treat the injury to the lifter in
any case, who remained in the squatting position moaning in pain much to
the consternation of the helpless audience.
The hapless lifter had successful surgery to relieve the prolapse, but
remained immobilized with his feet elevated in stirrups for 2 weeks to
ensure "internal compliance with the surgery and that the organs retracted
successfully". To add insult to injury, the ex-lifter required rectal
stitching to partially occlude the anal orifice and stitch the rectal
passage (which had significantly expanded and torn during the prolapse) and
also was put on a low fibre low residue diet to combat flatulence to avoid
any possibility of a recurrence. CBS news spoke to his wife and asked if
she thought he would resume his power lifting career. "Not if I have
anything to say about it, would you like to risk something like that again?"
We agreed!!
CBS news
