37-Year-Old Woman Gets Liver Transplant After Hepatitis B Infection From Nose Piercing
A woman in New York City is recovering after suffering from liver failure that was brought on by an infection from a nose ring she got on a whim.
Dana Smith, 37, told ABC 7 that she suddenly decided to get a nose ring while she was out shopping on Thanksgiving. A few days later, she noticed that she wasn’t feeling well, but she assumed it was just due to stress and acid reflux.
But after a few weeks, she couldn’t even keep food or water down. “I was just drinking water. I couldn’t hold the water down,” she said. “I guess at some point I started to throw up blood.”
Finally, on January 12, she asked her sister to bring her to Long Island Jewish Medical Center. At this point, she was so sick that she can’t remember the events that followed.
She remembers one ultrasound at the hospital, then waking up to her doctors telling her she had a new liver.
She was placed on the transplant list immediately, and a match was discovered within 48 hours, enabling her transplant surgery to take place on January 17.
She was able to return home on January 26.
The mystery of what caused the otherwise healthy young woman to become so seriously ill was solved when doctors removed Smith’s mask to discover the small, studded nose ring.
By ruling out all other variables, the medical team determined that the illness was an infection from that nose ring that resulted in fulminant Hepatitis B, and more importantly, she waited too long to seek medical attention.
Had she waited even one or two more days to visit the emergency room, her story could have ended much differently.
Source:
womenshealthmag.comabc7ny.com
