Here is the link:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_260.html
But, umm, what happens next at the hospital??? Do they sit her on a positive pressure commode and blow the intestines back in? Or maybe shove a vacuum hose down her throat and suck them back in? How do the doctors correct this problem?
Cecil briefly mentions the case of a toddler that sat on a suction-type pool drain. In this case, the child’s rectal mucosa was prolapsed This site says that “the prolapse was manually reduced” which sounds to me like the doctors pushed everything back in by hand.
This is in addition to repairing a laceration and performing a sigmoid colostomy.
However a prolapse of rectal mucosa sounds easier to fix than “several feet of small intestine” hanging out. The full letter from JAMA that Cecil refers to can be found here. The author says “an ambulance crew responded with a few moments and transported the woman to a local hospital. I left Canada within the hour and am unaware of the final outcome of the incident.” A UPI report says that the victim “was admitted to the hospital, where she was treated for 10 days and released.”
I guess it’s up to more medically inclined types to speculate exactly how it was done.
The column (including Slug Signorino’s illustration) can also be found on pages 260-262 of Cecil Adams’ book “Triumph of the Straight Dope”.
Good job in tracking down the references Alphagene. You’re my hero.