Self-Prescribed Fecal Transplant Saves Canadian Man's Life

A man in Canada who suffered from a bacterial infection known as Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile, since undergoing routine surgery 18 months ago, took drastic measures to save his life with a self-injected fecal transplant. It's becoming more common and is done by enema or through a tube in the nose.

When death was knocking on the door of a Canadian man, he took drastic measures to save his own life -- with a self-injected fecal transplant.

The poop-injecting patient is a 66-year-old man from Albert Bridge, Nova Scotia, who suffered from a bacterial infection known as Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile, since undergoing routine surgery 18 months ago, according to the Chronicle Herald.

The man, who spoke to the paper on the condition they would not reveal his name, said he was so frustrated and ill that he decided to get rid of the infection once and for all by giving himself an enema last Friday using feces belonging to his cousin that had been tested for other infections and parasites.

"It’s a nasty topic to discuss, but fecal transplants work, and I was not ready to wait any longer," the man told the paper.

Want to know how he did it? Here's the straight poop. Basically, he mixed the stool with water and flushed it into his nether regions using an enema, Gizmodo reported.

In the process, he jumped the gun. His doctor, Baroudi Fashir, was originally set to perform the "transpoosion" on March 9, but, despite it being approved by the hospital, there were no set guidelines for it so it could not go ahead.

Fashir was reportedly shocked when he learned that his patient had done the procedure himself.

"He did it by himself?" Fashir told the Chronicle Herald. "It’s not good to do by himself."

Treating medical patients with feces sounds, well, facetious, but some doctors think it's not such a crappy idea.

In fact, in September 2010, the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology published research suggesting that poop transplants could help patients suffering from the nasty clostridium difficile bug, which patients are increasingly catching in hospitals and nursing homes, according to AOL News.

Enemas are one way to inject the healing power of poop, but gastroenterologist Dr. Lawrence Brandt of New York's Montefiore Medical Center says a gastric tube inserted in the nose also can be good for what ails you.

"At the moment, it's a treatment of last resort," Brandt told AOL News. "But it's very efficient, with a cure rate of 90 percent for first-time users. Plus, it's safe with no adverse effects, and it's fast, sometimes solving the problem within hours."

But while Brandt believes that poop as medicine has "poo-sibilities," other experts like Dr. Saad Habba, a gastroenterologist at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J., isn't ready to flush the use of antibiotics down the toilet.

"Few of us can imagine using [stool], and it is unconventional," he admitted to AOL News. "Clearly, this is an end-of-the-road approach for recurrent C. Diff infection because of the obvious logistics of it."

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Comments

[Jacquelyn Bockius]

06:55 AM on 06/26/2012

I have every intention of doing this at home as well. The doctor here also says they have no guidelines, but I have no other options. I've used every drug that could be used to no avail. I just recently used a $2500.00 drug that gave me a 6 day remission only to be hit again with a nasty relapse while taking the 10 day course of this extremely expensive drug. I am on probiotic therapy and it helps, but does not cure. No more antibiotics, thank you! My donor is a family member who has just gone through a series of lower bowel testing and she is clean, clear and healthy. She has seen me suffer for years with this condition and is willing to supply all the clean poop that will be required. After all the pain, fatigue, bathroom residency, and general misery, dealing with a poop milkshake will not be a problem for me. You'd have to live it to understand.

[carmenalex]

04:47 PM on 04/25/2012

Dapoop did I just read?

[Tulka2]

04:24 PM on 04/25/2012

Moral of the story?  Only take antibiotics as a last resort. 

[Rich Cash]

01:26 AM on 04/10/2012

One thing about this article is certainly amazing. What's amazing is the juvenile use of the word "poop" in nearly every sentence, as if the use of fecal material to save someone's life is excuse enough to minimize the importance of saving that life because "poop" was an integral part of the process. Leave it to HP to ridicule the saving of a human life because "poop" was use in the process.

[elgeezr]

11:24 AM on 04/09/2012

Isn't that Canadian medicine wonderful? Wish we had it here in the U.S. ahaahahahahahahaaa!

[J0E1]

10:24 AM on 04/09/2012

I thought in Canada everyone got the treatment they needed whenever they needed it without question?  At least that's what the HPo commenters want you to think every time there is an article about US healthcare...

[sugarW]

10:25 AM on 04/10/2012

Of course this one story on the Weird News section is indicative of the entire Canadian health care system.

At least that what the paid tro11s want you to think...

[Chubbster]

12:05 PM on 06/03/2012

My Canadian friend with Addison's says her health care sucks.

[stargazer13]

09:52 AM on 04/09/2012

wow what happens?? when we run out of healthy poop donors ??

rut row !!

[InventPeace]

11:24 AM on 04/08/2012

A friends relative has a severe ibs problem, they found that no soft drinks, no caffiene (no coffe/tea etc) and lots of just normal water and non-processed foods helped alot over time (natrual fruits veggetables and only fish seemed to make the condition better over time), thinking sometimes the old ways are the best ways, all natural. Plus the leaching of the aluminum into the drinks, and the tin from the tin cans is eliminated; keeping in mind that most say metals never leave your body, and accumulate to a point where they cause problems (mental and physical). Some artificial sweeteners also seem to cause problems. Maybe growing on the soft drink, fast food diet isn't so great after all ! Some people think that a soft drinks are ok and drink almost exclusively only soft drinks and fulfills their need for water , but really the additives make your liver go haywire over time, which in turn drives your gall bladder which inputs to your stomach fluids. I heard one story where one person said adding yeast to his food (maybe home baked bread w yeast to make it rise) helped his ibs problem.

[Chubbster]

12:06 PM on 06/03/2012

soft drinks=sugar water=bad health. (heart attacks, rotting teeth and more)

[vanessavy]

7 minutes ago ( 9:04 PM)

Sorry but diet has nothing to do with C.diff.

[InventPeace]

11:14 AM on 04/08/2012

I guess everyone has to take a little S.... t at least once in their life? Sad to hear about people dying, my condolences to you. But now that they have the 90% cure (the video dipicts how they use a tube down your nose into your stomach (not the small intestine or colon)., so why not make a simple PILL FORM which a person could simply swallow since thats where the poop is going according to the video nasal tube method (or is there no profit in that? ); the "pill" could be thought of as an easy way to take a "super probiotic " (renaming the Poop Pill eases embarrasment) , the pill outer shell disolves in the stomach (or in small intestine (depending on where its best activized), and 90% of sufferers would not just live but live alot better quality of life instead of lying in a hosp bed in you know what,, (nurses hate cleaning up ten times a day (win-win).

[vanessavy]

6 minutes ago ( 9:06 PM)

The FDA has banned FT or claims they must approve them as of May 10th so you are basically forced to do enemas at home. Most doctors don't use the NG tube they do the enemas. I suffer from C.diff since having my colon removed due to F.A.P. (rare colon cancer disease) and am at my last resort.

[babby201]

10:50 PM on 04/07/2012

I wouldn't want to borrow his blender for margarittas.

[TheyCallMeLtKelso]

10:32 PM on 04/07/2012

The poop the whole poop and nothing but the poop!

[Lahonda]

06:02 PM on 04/09/2012

...and the poop shall make you free!

[Candide33]

08:58 PM on 04/07/2012

OMG, why did I watch that right after eating? I should have known better!

[imaxlr8ed1]

12:31 PM on 04/07/2012

The writer should be looking for a new job. C diff, like mersa, is a terrible problem that is growing in the U.S. and abroad and all the writer can do is make really stupid jokes. Antibiotics kill of all of the bacteria (good and bad) in the digestive system which allows c diff to flourish. The bacteria leaves spores which lie dormant until your treatment (flagyl,vancomiacin) is over and then respawns giving you the same illness over and over. Its difficult to rid the bacteria from your body and fecal transplants are a possibility for a cure.

[geewilikers]

01:18 PM on 04/07/2012

Cheap and practical treatment will never catch on in the US.

[Madtek]

11:29 AM on 04/07/2012

What the hell kind of C.Diff did he have if antibiotics didn't clear it up in 18mos.????

[geewilikers]

01:19 PM on 04/07/2012

It's really hard to get rid of. Go to almost any hospital, nursing home, or rehab facility and it's rampant. It kills many who are in a weakened conditions. It's a nasty way to die.

[Larry Motuz]

01:59 PM on 04/07/2012

C. Diff has evolved with the overuse of antibiotics, and particularly by industrial farms. It is resistant to just about every antibiotic.

[bassmeant1]

10:14 AM on 04/07/2012

See and I thought this story was about a politician in Washington who was found to be a couple quarts low.

So they had to take some from a donor and put it in the politicians head to top him off and get him back to normal.

Because we all know that politicians are full of it.

Peace
B