- Here’s a reminder to take it easy while appreciating your own body.
It’s always good to love yourself. But this young fellow pushed the act of self-love to the breaking point.
A recent case report, published in the journal Radiology Case Reports, details the story of a 20-year-old man from Switzerland. He managed to land himself in the hospital with a torn lung and air inside his chest cavity after what we can only assume was a particularly furious masturbation session.
The man had been at home, doing what so many young men do. According to the patient, he had been lying in bed having a meeting with Mrs. Palm and her five daughters.
Suddenly, he began experiencing symptoms that would be massive turnoffs for anybody. He started having trouble breathing and soon after developed a sharp pain in his chest.
In case you’re one of the few people who have never masturbated, that’s not something that’s supposed to happen. Worried, the young man decided it was time to go to the emergency room.
Took His Own Breath Away
From the emergency room, the man was quickly sent to the ICU. He seemed fine, but his increasing chest pain had the doctors worried.
The guy had a history of mild asthma, but otherwise, he was healthy. He told the doctors he didn’t smoke or use drugs, and that he hadn’t been coughing or exercising heavily.
Of course, that latter point depends on how hard he was going at it. But still, an average masturbation session burns only about 70 calories, so he should’ve been fine.
The doctors did notice that the man’s face was swollen. Additionally, they could hear rasping noise in his throat with his breathing.
To get to the bottom of the mystery, the doctors gave the man a CT scan and X-rays. The results revealed the nature of his issues.
“[A CT scan] of chest and neck showed profound pneumomediastinum with subcutaneous emphysema reaching up until the base of the skull,” the case report reads.
In plainer words, the young man had torn his lung while masturbating. As a result, air had leaked out from his lungs and into his chest cavity.
Painful but Benign
Luckily for him, this condition isn’t particularly dangerous, despite the intense pain it causes. According to Dr. Nikola Rajic and Dr. Christian Schandl — the report’s authors — pneumomediastinum usually fixes itself as the body absorbs the air back into the lungs.
Indeed, the man didn’t require any significant medical procedure. The doctors gave him Paracetamol, which successfully relieved his pain.
They kept the man overnight in the ICU, and further tests showed the air inside his chest has dissipating. The man was still experiencing mild pain, though, so he ended up staying in the general ward for three days.
Pneumomediastinum is a relatively rare condition that usually occurs in men in their twenties after strenuous exercise, coughing, or vomiting. The young man, however, might make medical history by masturbating so hard he broke his lungs.
“Since there is no literature on spontaneous pneumomediastinum with onset during masturbation, we consider our case an unusual presentation of this entity,” the doctors summarized.
Stroking to a Stroke
This particular young man luckily only got a scare, and a lesson to take it easy when having his private time. But he’s not the only one who’s had to learn that lesson.
In 2021, the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases published a case report about a 51-year-old Japanese man. They noted that the gentleman was right-handed, which we assume is significant information in this case.
The man had already masturbated several times in one day. Still, he decided to bust a nut one more time, for good times’ sake.
But the times quickly turned a lot less good. Immediately after climaxing, the man came down with what the report called “thunderclap” headaches and furious vomiting.
To the hospital he went and, like the Swiss man, ended up in a CT scanner. There were no ruptured lungs this time, though — the man had suffered a stroke while having a stroke.
Luckily, this case has a happy ending as well. After spending two weeks in a hospital, he went back home without any further complications.
It’s okay to have a bit of fun with yourself. Just remember to not beat your meat like it’s primetime Mike Tyson’s punching bag.