Runner ruptures his esophagus by vomiting

A runner could have died after he ruptured his esophagus when he vomited during a 100-mile race.

According to a report published at BMJ Case Reports, the 37-year-old man felt intense pain in his stomach and chest, and was struggling to breathe at the race in California.

First-aiders at the event initially worried the man was suffering a heart attack, and he was rushed to hospital.
Doctors ran X-rays, finding the force of his vomiting had caused his esophagus to burst open, known as Boerhaave’s syndrome.

The only option for the man was to have surgery, which mainly focuses on stopping leakage by sealing the tears in the esophagus.

He ended up spending 41 days in three hospitals.

Boerhaave’s syndrome is extremely rare, affecting only around three in a million people, and can be deadly within hours, killing around a third of patients who have it.

Doctors, writing in the medical journal BMJ Case Reports, said they had not come across a case of Boerhaave’s syndrome in an athlete before.

The Boerhaave’s syndrome is normally seen in men aged 40 to 60 who have drunk too much alcohol, or overindulged in food.

Mortality rates for this syndrome can be as high as 80 percent, the doctors wrote.

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