Comments on: Ping Pong Balls Saved Her Life

By: Jim Clark

Jim Clark — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:22:10 +0000

Madness, but worthwhile i guess!

By: Otto

Otto — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:45:07 +0000

I’m not sure on the immunosupressives thing.

I’ve got some titanium screws in my knee, my father-in-law has total hip replacement, my mother-in-law has plastic heart valves and my boss had both knees replaced. We’re not on immunosuppressives. I dunno..I’m not a doctor.

By: Retrokatze

Retrokatze — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:01:31 +0000

@Fuzz:

Tha ball is inside her body. If she falls so hard as to crack the ball, the shards won’t be a problem anymore.

@PrincessPi: They most definitely put her on Immunosupressives. As a matter of fact, she’ll be taking them her whole life.

By: Zombie

Zombie — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:30:56 +0000

So …. um… can she …. make a pearl now? I mean, isn’t that what happens with oysters? They put in a foreign object and leave it there …. and ….

By: Minnesotastan

Minnesotastan — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:28:00 +0000

The insertion of lucite balls (essentially ping-pong balls) into the pleural space was a common procedure in the pre-antibiotic era as treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis. The balls (or, alternatively, sponges, oil, other inert substances) compressed the lung, putting it “to rest” or at least decreasing ventilation so that the tubercle bacilli would not be coughed out. The lucite balls were commonly retained for decades without “rejection”, although they sometimes migrated or eroded into other structures.

By: PrincessPi

PrincessPi — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:34:13 +0000

I’m assuming since she had a liver transplant that the doctors put her on some type of anti-rejection medication, which would keep her body from attacking the ping pong balls as a foreign body as her immune system typically would under normal circumstances, but wouldn’t the process of sterilizing the balls prior to implanting them – done in an autoclave – have exploded the balls? They’re full of gas, which, under high temperatures and pressures (which is what an autoclave does – it’s a pressure cooker) – expands.

Just curious how the docs got around that.

By: Fuzz

Fuzz — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:09:20 +0000

So what happens if she falls and the balls crack? Broken ping pong balls can fracture and shard. I would imagine that wouldn’t be nice to have inside you.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:38:29 +0000

That’s awesome. I thought ping pong balls were just good for raising sunken sailboats and for doing really cool things when chucked into a camp fire.