In what has been described as a first-of-its-kind medical case, a man ended up with a hole in his throat after pinching his nose and pressing his lips shut in order to surpress a sneeze.
The unnamed man was taken to the Hospital, in Dundee, Scotland, in severe pain, after trying to stifle a sneeze by pinching his nose and closing his mouth shut while driving. When you do something like that, the pressure in the upper airways can increase by about 20 times, which can lead to serious injuries including ruptured eardrums, aneurysms, and even broken ribs. However, in this particular case, the patient ended up with a 2mm tear in their windpipe, causing excruciating pain. A throat tear, known medically as a “spontaneous tracheal perforation” is a rare and potentially life-threatening injury that had not been associated with sneeze stifling before.
So next time, like princess Elsa sang in Frozen “LET IT GO”.
[source: OddityCentral]
