A Woman’s Intestines Literally Tied Themselves Into a Knot After Childbirth
An incredibly rare case.
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Doctors in Ethiopia encountered an extraordinarily rare medical emergency when a new mother developed severe abdominal complications just days after delivering a healthy baby. The 30-year-old woman’s condition deteriorated rapidly over three days, with symptoms including inability to pass stool or gas, escalating pain, severe vomiting, and abdominal swelling. Upon arrival at the hospital in critical condition, she required immediate intervention including intravenous fluids and emergency surgery.
During surgery, medical teams discovered the shocking cause of her distress: sections of her small intestine had literally wrapped around her lower large intestine, forming a tight knot that blocked bowel contents and cut off blood supply to the affected tissue. Approximately 60 centimeters of her small intestine and part of her large intestine had died from lack of blood flow. Surgeons successfully removed the damaged sections and created a temporary opening in her abdomen to allow waste elimination while she healed.
This case represents an exceptionally uncommon occurrence, with only about 15 documented instances reported worldwide between 1967 and 2025 following childbirth. Medical experts believe certain anatomical features—including unusually mobile intestines and specific structural characteristics—make this knot formation possible. While pregnancy hormones and regional dietary factors may have contributed to this patient’s situation, the exact cause remains unclear. Despite the severity of her condition, the woman survived and recovered without complications after a follow-up surgical procedure.
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Originally reported by Sciencealert →
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