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EXCLUSIVE Woman's colon EXPLODES out of her body after coughing too hard from a cold
Doctors are warning about the dangers of coughing too hard this allergy season.
Earlier this year, doctors wrote a case report of an unnamed woman, 61, from Taiwan, who suffered a rare bowel evisceration - when parts of the intestines protrude outside of the body.
And while rare, similar cases have been reported, like that of an 86-year-old woman from the UK in 2011, who was suffering from a respiratory infection had an intense coughing fit and also experienced evisceration of her small bowel through her vagina.
In both cases, the women experienced the injury because of defects stemming from prior hysterectomies - removal of the uterus.
In the 2025 case report, the woman had undergone a hysterectomy 10 months prior and suffered no complications, but visited the emergency room when she began experiencing abdominal pain.
In an examination, doctors discovered a small part of her bowel was protruding out of her vagina. During emergency surgery to repair the injury doctors discovered a defect in part of her vaginal wall that allowed the intestines to break through and leave her body.
While it was not specified what caused the woman's injury, authors of the case report cite a chronic cough or intense coughing fit as risk factors.
Once the organs were repositioned, the surgeons fixed the defect, the woman recovered and she returned home five days later.
She was formally diagnosed with vaginal cuff dehiscence - the reopening of a surgical site - with small bowel evisceration.
This is a known possible complication of a hysterectomy, but is still very rare, occurring in about 0.032 percent of patients following a pelvic operation.
There is limited data on the occurrence of wound dehiscence, but a 2014 study found up to three-in-100 people who have had abdominal and pelvic surgeries may experience it. That rises to up to 10 percent of elderly patients.
And it can be deadly for four-in-10 patients due to excessive blood loss, prolonged severe pain or injury to the organs that have been exposed.
In the 2011 case report, the woman went to the emergency department and told doctors she had an intense coughing fit and then felt her bowel protruding from her vagina - six inches of her intestines were outside of her body.
For the prior three years, the woman had been experiencing a vaginal vault prolapse - when the top of the vagina falls into the vaginal canal.
The condition had been well-managed, however, by her primary doctor.
Eventually her situation became too complicated and she was referred to a specialist but the evisceration occurred before she was able to make an appointment.
The doctors rushed the woman into surgery where they repaired the defect and replaced her bowels.
The operation was successful and she was discharged six days later.
Officially, the woman's diagnosis was ruptured vaginal vault leading to prolapse of the small bowel.
Authors of the case report wrote the prolapse of small bowel through a ruptured vagina has been reported in just 113 cases worldwide.
The mortality rate in vaginal evisceration is about six percent.
When these injuries occur, they must be treated with surgery to replace the organs and close any open wounds or defects.
A sterile saline covering should also be put on eviscerations to keep the exposed organs moist until surgery can be performed.
