Heavy Metal Poisoning
Sometime last year, a patient came to the hospital very sick and tired. His symptoms were a pain in the joints, shortness of breath, vomiting, nausea, and shaking. With these symptoms, we ran some tests on the taxi driver. So, the driver was sent to the hospital’s laboratory so that blood extraction could get done for the tests. When the blood was being drawn, the blood turned out to be black. The blood was super dark and very thick. This occasion was the first instance I had come across and was quite puzzling. Tests were done on him, but they all came back negative. This was the point I knew something was wrong somewhere
With the symptoms, it was beyond clear that the patient was suffering from poising, but then I could not precisely tell which one. Metal poisoning instances have occurred but then not as severe as this. Many appliances have been coated with these metals hence not a rare case. If it was metal poisoning, then the chances of the metal involved being a heavy metal were significantly high. While in the hospital, I ask the patient about his home and all the appliances he used daily. He explained it to me, and we continued talking. He then mentioned to me that he had had an accident about seven years ago. He then went for surgery and got his left leg a hip and knee arthroplasty. When he told me this, I automatically knew this was the cause of the problem.
With the hip prosthesis, specifically, those with metal on metal frequently rubbing each other on the joints, metal ions get formed, which is with the blood and form a black tar-like liquid like the one drawn from the patient’s body. With this substance in the body, many organs get disrupted, and as a defense mechanism, the body poses these symptoms. After consulting other doctors, it was agreed that the artificial bones to be changed since they had stayed for a long time I the patient’s body.