John Wayne's Colon

Factual Questions
1

I’m not sure if this is a UL or just local bullshit. I’m interested to see if: (1) anyone else here has heard this, and (2) if it is the UL bullshit I suspect it is.

Every now and again, at the local bar, somebody will bring up this tidbit of cute celebrity autopsy trivia:

“John Wayne had 26 pounds of feces [to polite it up a bit] in his intestines when he died.”

First, I coulda swore he died of lung cancer (nuclear testing in Nevada, fallout, etc.). But–those that love bringing this subject up (and, despite my own post, I am absolutely not one of them), are pretty sure that a shit-ladden colon are to blame.

Sorry for the disgusting post; hope you weren’t eating.

2

This is a UL.
http://www.snopes.com/toxins/fecal.htm

3

I haven’t looked at the snopes link, but I think he had a full recovery from the lung cancer.

What did him in over a decade later was colon cancer.

4

Actually his cancer had spread to his stomach, not his colon. From the reports I’ve seen, it sounded as if his cancer had mestastasized throughout much of his body.

5

Thanks for the link. I’d searched snopes, but it obviously slipped past me.

The page is printing out even as I type, and I will be attempting to stomp out this wee morsel of ignorance next chance I get.

6

[humming]

“John Wayne’s colon is mouldering in the grave,
His films go rolling on.”

[/humming]

7

I can’t say I’ve heard that specifically for John Wayne, but that doesn’t mean it did not happen, either. It may simply be a rundown of the gorey details surrounding the pathway to his death. I’m sure the media felt no need to give a news report reading like a report from forensics. I mean, when we talk of someone’s death, we summarize the event with the major culprit. How many people need or wish to hear the extreme details?

In short, it is possible for a primary cause (such as a cancer in advanced stages) to trigger shutdowns of other systems, such as normal operations of the colon. If the colon should rupture, one is said to have become septic (or one is said to have developed sepsis) as the bloodstream is flooded with the nasty organisms residing in the colon and their toxins. This is sometimes refered to as a form of blood poisoning.

While very strong antibiotics may be used to combat the condition (by IV), the odds are not good when the body’s systems (including immune, lymph, etc.) start shutting down.

But, I’m sure you will agree that this is really much more than you needed to know, isn’t it?

“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV

8

Damn, jti, you beat me to it!

9

gotta move quickly, CK.