A close call

A man aged 61 came to see me a few weeks ago about his tablets. He mentioned towards the end of the consultation that he had a ‘pulsation’ in his stomach. This made my ears prick up and I examined his belly and indeed found a pulsation there. I decided to arrange an ultrasound scan (the one woman have when they are pregnant) fairly quickly.

I had an email very quickly from our local consultant saying this chap had a fairly large aortic aneurysm (a bulging of the main blood vessel in the abdomen). He needed seeing soon in the out patient clinic so I informed my patient, reassured him and arranged the appointment.

However he left me a message a few days later to say that the pain in his stomach had worsened. This rang alarm bells so I spoke to him and admitted him to hospital for more tests. It turned out the aneurysm had got bigger and was about to burst – something which would be likely to kill him.

The story has a happy ending though because an urgent operation was done,  with him recovering well over the next 10 days on the ward and I went to see him at home the other day to find him in good spirits and looking forward to another 30 years of health!

I don’t want any of you to panic about this. Aneurysms are rare but I did want to get the message across that if something feels not quite right in your body then have a chat to your GP about it – if only just to reassure yourself!