Just my opinion.
Shit, er explosions, happen:
Andrew Warinner
But this was not skepticism over flatal combustibility.
The specific alleged incident “blasted the surgeon’s head against a wall, and slammed the patient’s head against the table.”
Now citate that.
Mjollnir wrote:
Ain’t my job, McGee.
If you wanted documentation of the effects on the surgery you’ll just have to look up the articles yourself. I’ve given you one stomach rupture and three colonic explosions to go on.
Andrew Warinner
I did, jack.
It was never remotely even implied, jack.
I don’t know this but wouldn’t the exploding gas have been methane not hydrogen(if you believe the story)?
Mjollnir wrote:
Knock off the ‘jack’ crap, blowhard.
You claimed Dr. Levitt vectored an urban legend. What is it?
The legend can’t be ‘explosions can happen during gastrointestinal surgery’ as several cases have been documented. One of the cites even noted ‘explosion in the gastrointestinal tract is a known serious complication.’
Dr. Levitt’s embroidery of the story does not make it an urban legend. It makes Dr. Levitt possibly guilty of exaggeration. Another thing to consider is that the explosions were not harmless. Two of the cases cited required a partial and a total colectomy which suggests that a considerable amount of damage occurred.
Did the explosion blow the surgeon against the wall? Beats the hell out of me, but I don’t know how big an explosion would have to be to require a total colectomy, either. The ‘surgeon blown against the wall’ does seem implausible but ‘patient’s head slammed against table’ doesn’t.
So you’ve got a story that has at best one exaggeration but is otherwise factually plausible. Is that all it takes to make it an urban legend?
CarnalK wrote:
What’s not to believe?
Other cites also warn against the use of mannitol because it stimulates the growth of hydrogen producing bacteria.
Andrew Warinner
The column can also be found on pages 385-386 of Cecil Adams’ book “More of the Straight Dope”.
Gee, Mjollnir, if you need a cite, is the Weekly World News good enough for ya? 
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/stories/2092.html
Granted, it doesn’t mention a doctor; actually, the guy died. But hey, what a scoop!
At a museum with my daughter, a demonstrator touched a candle to a hydrogen-filled balloon high in the room. I was probably 25 feet away, but the explosion about knocked me off my chair.
How big was the balloon?
About as big as the average colon…
OK, maybe it was from surprise…the explosion was considerably more than I expected. The balloon was an ordinary toy balloon, as near as I could tell. Perhaps not.