Posted on 03/26/2005 5:09:29 PM PST by RobertP
Fort Bragg Officer's Hiccups, Death A Mystery
POSTED: 7:31 pm EST March 26, 2005
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The family of a Fort Bragg officer recently back from Iraq said Capt. Terrance Wright seemed to hiccup almost constantly for weeks before he died earlier this month.
The Army said Wright died of an unknown illness shortly after returning from Iraq in February. His body was found in a Fayetteville motel room on March 2.
Wright's mother, Sandra Wright, and an aunt, Karen Wright, said Wright had been a healthy 33-year-old before he deployed to Iraq in November. It was his second tour in Iraq.
Karen Wright said she spoke to her nephew in Iraq in early February.
"He could not speak one sentence without hiccuping," she said.
Wright was seen by doctors in Germany and at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., before being sent to a doctor at Womack Army Medical Center on Fort Bragg last month, said Capt. Kevin Broadnax, an Army casualty assistance officer.
Federal privacy laws bar the Army from saying why Wright was being seen at Womack, hospital spokeswoman Shannon Lynch said.
An autopsy performed on Wright's body by Womack doctors was inconclusive, Lynch said. The hospital is waiting for the results of toxicology tests, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
Apparently "chronic hiccups" is a known condition, though Docs may not know the all causes. Inflammation of the esophagus is one.
http://www.orpha.net/data/patho/GB/uk-hiccup.pdf
That IS strange; never heard of it before.
I expect that would cure the hiccups...
Didn't one of the Popes...maybe this Pope...nearly die from hiccups a few years ago. I remember at the time thinking "Whoa! I didn't know it could be fatal".
He probably succumbed to extreme sleep deprivation (is it possible to hiccup while asleep?). There were some horror stories about people in long sneezing or hiccuping fits like that.
My brother-in-law had a cerebral stroke right after Valentine's Day. (He's 37) One of the main symptoms that lingered for weeks was his constant chronic hiccuping. It started immediately after the event. His neurologists said it was a well-known side effect of the kind of damage he sustained. And yes it is possible to sleep while hiccuping.. although it's not like you sleep well.
Pope Pious XII had the hiccups for a while. He got through it OK. His death came from other factors.
I had hiccups for two days once and experienced much chest pain for it.
A friend of mine had been put under for some oral surgery and afterwards he had the hiccups for days. He had to go back in and be put back to sleep and brought out of it again. Cured him of the hiccups. The dentist told him that it happens quite often after being put to sleep.
Weird.
I know two sure fire cures for hiccups; if the first one doesn't work, the second one will.
I've been prone to painful hiccups at times, and this has always worked.
1. Drink a glass of water backwards. I.e. - hold a full glass of water in front of you, bend forward, and drink out of the farther edge of the glass.
If that doesn't work, try this:
2. Eat a teaspoon full of plain honey or sugar.
I have used these on many people. I wonder if one would have worked on the unfortunate Wright?
The best hiccup cure I have seen is to cover a cracker with mustard, chew it up and swallow it.
It is amazing, it works almost instantly.
I'll add that to my repertoire.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.