Stupid People Tricks

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That really sucks

Debunked: Fat person on airline toilet has intestines sucked out due to vacuum.

Numerous searches of the National Library of Medicine found nothing to confirm that an vacuum airplane toilet had caused evisceration. Though apparently you can get stuck on the toilet. See Getting Stuck.

See also Not a Airplane Toilet Evisceration

In Dispute: Apparently, a "slightly obese" person on ship toilet has had intestines sucked out due to vacuum.

Other than one letter in Journal of the American Medical Association (March 6, 1987 257(9):1177) by J. Brendan Wynne, DO Philadelphia there is no evidence of this type of injury from a vacuum toilet though there is considerable evidence of this type of damage caused by pool or hot tub drains.

Documented: A similar accident happened to a little girl who sat on a wading pool drain in North Carolina on 16 June 1991 [she didn't die].

According to the CDC's MMWR:

"When a child sits on an unprotected suction-drain vent, the child's perineum can form a firm seal that creates a vacuum capable of relaxing the anal sphincter. This negative pressure on the exposed rectal walls can result in prolapse or intussusception; this, in turn, usually produces a full-thickness anterior bowel tear, creating the potential for evisceration of the mobile small intestine through the laceration and the anal canal. Damage to the mesentery can produce extensive irreversible small bowel ischemia requiring resection."

References:

• Not a Airplane Toilet Evisceration
• JAMA Letter
• http://tafkac.org/medical/pool_drains.html
• Getting stuck