Death by being 'corked'

Apologies in advance as this is a really disgusting one - how long would the average adult male human have to survive if his means to defecate was blocked in some way (be it a cork and glue, industrial filler or some other method)? Assuming he was force-fed what he needed to survive so he didn’t starve. What would the cause of death be?

I’m guessing that either something would rupture in the lower intestine and he would bleed to death internally or he’d get some kind of infection, either way dying a slow and smelly death. Given the propensity of humans to inflict atrocities on each other, I’m sure this has been done at some point - what happens?

Actually, bowel obstruction is a serious problem. Untreated complete obstruction can be quickly fatal.

The pain can be terrible. If the obstruction is complete, the bowel will rupture and septic shock will killthe patient, if not treated quickly and aggressively.

See: Se7en, “gluttony” sequence.

IIRC this was or possibly still is a torture-to-death punishment for the crime of being Teh Gay in some Middle Eastern country. Iran, perhaps? Not going to Google it here at work but I’m sure someone can wander by and clarify or correct me.

Perhaps it’s a bad reference, but I believe I read in Guinness Book of World Records that it’s not fatal, though “very uncomfortable”, and there was a record for the person who went the longest without defecating. I don’t recall the record or the reason for the blockage, but it was surprisingly long (6 months?) I think I still have my 1992 Guinness; I’ll double-check later.

On one of Anthony Bourdain’s shows, he visited a museum in (I think) Philadelphia, where the colon of a man who suffered from megacolon was on display, along with a few photos of the owner of said colon. His abdomen was enormous.

Here’s a more recent case, in which the elderly patient died after going one month without a bowel movement. Photos show his abdomen was gigantic. Given that photo, I’d be very surprised if someone could go six months without a movement.

That page also includes a shot of “The Balloon Man,” referenced in my previous paragraph.

“Balloon Man”'s megacolon developed over many, many years and thus his body had more time to accommodate the problem and grow to immense size than a person in the OP’s scenario.

Eventually, something will give.

Elvis Presley had a megacolon, and it contributed heavily to his death.

Gah, really? Was his ass “corked”? If so, I totally missed that detail.

The Mutter Museum. Saw it a few weeks ago!

I understand he had chronic constipation. I wonder if his drug abuse lead to that or contributed greatly. Drug abuse, most often, opiates can cause severe constipation. Elvis supposedly also vastly overused antacids.

No, but it was the same result. Massive overeating, followed by a… reduction of space.

I definitely didn’t miss that detail! :wink:

Though, “corking” sounds like something “John Doe” would’ve done. The sick, evil genius. I’ll just assume he did.

For the opposite effect, see scaphism.

An acute mechanical large bowel obstruction is a different condition from various types of chronic ileus (slowing of the bowel). We treat it as a surgical emergency, meaning it needs to be fixed very proximately to presentation.

In most cases of chronic types of ileus (the old guy with constipation, or a big, lazy colon), liquid stool and gas still pass, and what builds up is a large bulk of inspissated feces. But it’s not a complete bowel obstruction, and it’s not acute.

With an acute and complete mechanical obstruction, there are two concerns. The first is that most of the underlying conditions that do this (say, a strangulated bowel from twisting) also produce some ischemia (loss of blood supply) and dead bowel leaks germs into the blood system too rapidly to be cleared so the resulting sepsis can kill you. (Also, dead bowel can rupture and then you got germs all over the place inside your abdominal cavity, causing havoc.)

The second concern is a buildup of gas, which is surprising hard to burp off when you can no longer pass it rectally. Bacteria in the colon keep producing gas, and the colon pressure keeps building. Eventually the patient is not only in pain; they are vomiting their guts out–severely enough so that the fluid and electrolyte losses are themselves potentially lethal.

Life expectancy for a complete acute (small or large) bowel obstruction might be a day or two, I’d say, but not more…maybe a bit longer if the colon is blocked at the very end, b/c then you get the largest possible amount of reserve for bloating up, so to speak.

Ick. Why do I even try to pretend these are actual medical questions?

Yeah, Gluttony’s direct cause of death was John Doe kicking him in the gut. “Pop him like a fucking balloon”, as Brad Pitt’s character put it.