Flooding of the lungs

[Cricky]

My girlfriend is in ICU, she tells me that she has flooding of the lungs.

I Googled and found it to be Pulmonary edema, is this similar, it looks very dangerous. I'm worried about her.

She's only 27yo, she has been to hospital many times over the years for severe headaches, she has very high blood pressure.
 

 

[marin]

The Thai Name for pneumonia. 

[BigStar]

I can see why you're worried. Good luck to her.

[Ralf001]

25 minutes ago, marin said:

The Thai Name for pneumonia. 

Ive had a decent bout of pneumonia in Thailand... never was it called "flooding of the lungs".

[richard_smith237]

Hope she's getting good treatment. 

 

What type of hospital is she in and where ?

 

There is a lot of excellent medical advise and knowledge on this forum... some hospitals are better than others. 

 

Example: a recent thread about Khon Kaen University Hospital - whereby posters suggested this hospital was excellent, but another hospital in KK was not very good at all and the advice was if possible to move the patent to Khon Kaen University Hospital.

 

Thus; in providing the hospital you might receive some better advice from those in the know (if you are looking for advice of what to do).

[Cricky]

43 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Hope she's getting good treatment. 

 

What type of hospital is she in and where ?

 

There is a lot of excellent medical advise and knowledge on this forum... some hospitals are better than others. 

 

Example: a recent thread about Khon Kaen University Hospital - whereby posters suggested this hospital was excellent, but another hospital in KK was not very good at all and the advice was if possible to move the patent to Khon Kaen University Hospital.

 

Thus; in providing the hospital you might receive some better advice from those in the know (if you are looking for advice of what to do).

She was on vacation, staying with her mother and got admitted to a hospital up in Isaan.

 

Sadly she had to move hospitals by ambulance, she was working in a factory in Samut Prakan, this is where she is now registered.
 

I think it's Bangplee hospital

 

Edited July 5 by Cricky

[marin]

51 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

Ive had a decent bout of pneumonia in Thailand... never was it called "flooding of the lungs".

So did I, its how I know. 9 days in hospital, 3 in ICU. The nurses said the the common name for pneumonia in Thai was Lungs Flooding, it was understood by my neighbors when I returned. Not the medical name but the common name. 

 

 

Make sure they closely monitor her blood oxygen. Mine started dropping one night, had it checked 10 times in two hours, kept dropping and I ended up in ICU. 

[Ralf001]

15 minutes ago, marin said:

So did I, its how I know. 9 days in hospital, 3 in ICU. The nurses said the the common name for pneumonia in Thai was Lungs Flooding, it was understood by my neighbors when I returned. Not the medical name but the common name. 

 

 

 

 

 

I did 2 month ICU.... 1 of which was induced coma, the to private ward for rehab fr another month.

 

Severe pnueumonia both lungs, blood oxygen level in  the 60's when admited.

 

none of the nurses/doctors/hospital staff refered to it as anything other than pneumonia.

[Sheryl]

"flooding of the lungs" is a common folk term in Thailand for pneumonia.

 

Doctors and nurses will be familiar with it and may use it to explain things in familiar kay terms to Thai patients, but would not use the term with a foreign patient.

 

@Cricky It is unusual for a person that young to have pneumonia severe enough to require ICU care.

 

Assuming she is telling the truth (very common for Thai GFs to make up stories like this seeking money, I'm afraid) then need to consider underlying cause for it. COVID is a possible but not usually so severe in young people.  HIV is another.

 

 

 

 

[Gottfrid]

8 hours ago, marin said:

The Thai Name for pneumonia. 

Not exactly, if the OP is right. They are 2 different things, but it can be pneumonia they mean.

If so, it would be easy to treat at only 27 years of age. I had double sided pneumonia at 52 years of age, and worked all through it took medicine and never had a day in hospital.

To have pulmonary edema at 27 is rare, as that is most common to find in people over the age of 60. However, usually that only becomes dangerous if there are other conditions in play or if it goes untreated. Today, it is fairly easy to treat by a doctor. I think you can calm down little bit, but it might take up to a week before she gets home, depending on treatment and severity.

Edited July 5 by Gottfrid

[Lorry]

 

Sheryl's translation is not quite correct. 

 

น้ำท่วมปอด naamthuam bawt " flooded lungs" pulmonary edema

bawt = lungs

naamthuam we probably all know,  especially now in the rainy season

 

https://ch9airport.com/th/ภาวะ-น้ำท่วมปอด/

 

Translate the website with Google, as gf probably did, and you get the flooded lungs. 

The site also gives you the usual reason: heart failure.

Not so unusual with young, poor Thais,  to have an undetected heart defect. 

 

Not to confuse with 

ปอดบวม bawt buam "swollen lungs" pneumonia

 

โรคปอดบวม bawt buam = ปอดอักเสบ  bawt aksep "inflamed lungs" pneumonia

 

http://www.medparkhospital.com/disease-and-treatment/pneumonia

 

 

Edited July 5 by Lorry

[Cricky]

12 hours ago, Sheryl said:

"flooding of the lungs" is a common folk term in Thailand for pneumonia.

 

Doctors and nurses will be familiar with it and may use it to explain things in familiar kay terms to Thai patients, but would not use the term with a foreign patient.

 

@Cricky It is unusual for a person that young to have pneumonia severe enough to require ICU care.

 

Assuming she is telling the truth (very common for Thai GFs to make up stories like this seeking money, I'm afraid) then need to consider underlying cause for it. COVID is a possible but not usually so severe in young people.  HIV is another.

 

 

 

 

Thank you Sheryl, I feel all your points are valid for this forum and should be addressed.

Her regular headaches and high blood pressure over the last couple of years worries me, I feel her heart is the problem. She is not overweight, only 44kg, height 156cm. so she seems in the normal range.

Over the weeks she has been discharged from hospital after initially spending around 10 days in (ICU). After leaving hospital she seemed fine, 100% but then slowly over a week or so started wheezing, difficulty breathing again, so she was placed back in ICU.

When we first met, she told me, as a teenager, still at school she couldn't walk for 3 months, she was in hospital for Autoimmune disease.

 

[Cricky]

10 hours ago, Lorry said:

 

Sheryl's translation is not quite correct. 

 

น้ำท่วมปอด naamthuam bawt " flooded lungs" pulmonary edema

bawt = lungs

naamthuam we probably all know,  especially now in the rainy season

 

https://ch9airport.com/th/ภาวะ-น้ำท่วมปอด/

 

Translate the website with Google, as gf probably did, and you get the flooded lungs. 

The site also gives you the usual reason: heart failure.

Not so unusual with young, poor Thais,  to have an undetected heart defect. 

 

Not to confuse with 

ปอดบวม bawt buam "swollen lungs" pneumonia

 

โรคปอดบวม bawt buam = ปอดอักเสบ  bawt aksep "inflamed lungs" pneumonia

 

http://www.medparkhospital.com/disease-and-treatment/pneumonia

 

 

Thank you Lorry, I read if heart is not strong it can affect the lungs, I think this is the issue.
 

[Cricky]

12 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

Not exactly, if the OP is right. They are 2 different things, but it can be pneumonia they mean.

If so, it would be easy to treat at only 27 years of age. I had double sided pneumonia at 52 years of age, and worked all through it took medicine and never had a day in hospital.

To have pulmonary edema at 27 is rare, as that is most common to find in people over the age of 60. However, usually that only becomes dangerous if there are other conditions in play or if it goes untreated. Today, it is fairly easy to treat by a doctor. I think you can calm down little bit, but it might take up to a week before she gets home, depending on treatment and severity.

Noted thanks

 

[Ralf001]

13 hours ago, Sheryl said:

 

 

Doctors and nurses will be familiar with it and may use it to explain things in familiar kay terms to Thai patients, but would not use the term with a foreign patient.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explains why It was never said to me then, thanks for the clarifcation.

[Lorry]

19 minutes ago, Cricky said:

Thank you Lorry, I read if heart is not strong it can affect the lungs, I think this is the issue.
 

Sounds a lot like this. 

But really should ask the doctors

[Presnock]

20 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Ive had a decent bout of pneumonia in Thailand... never was it called "flooding of the lungs".

that is what pneumonia is - water in the lungs and here any water in the lungs would be a flood as any is dangerous.

[PPMMUU]

‘Flooding of the lung’ is the common Thai term for pulmonary edema. It can be found in pneumonia, heart failure, and many other causes. The common Thai terms for pneumonia are 'swelling lung' and 'inflamed lung.' ‘Flooding of the lung' is hardly ever used for pneumonia.

Edited July 6 by PPMMUU

[Ralf001]

26 minutes ago, Presnock said:

that is what pneumonia is - water in the lungs and here any water in the lungs would be a flood as any is dangerous.

 

When they were shoving a tube down into my lungs to vacuum crap out it did not look like water !

[Lorry]

13 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

 

When they were shoving a tube down into my lungs to vacuum crap out it did not look like water !

The "crap" didn't come from the lungs but from the airways. 

That's why it wasn't water but sputum (phlegm)

[Sheryl]

12 hours ago, Lorry said:

 

Sheryl's translation is not quite correct. 

 

น้ำท่วมปอด naamthuam bawt " flooded lungs" pulmonary edema

bawt = lungs

naamthuam we probably all know,  especially now in the rainy season

 

https://ch9airport.com/th/ภาวะ-น้ำท่วมปอด/

 

Translate the website with Google, as gf probably did, and you get the flooded lungs. 

The site also gives you the usual reason: heart failure.

Not so unusual with young, poor Thais,  to have an undetected heart defect. 

 

Not to confuse with 

ปอดบวม bawt buam "swollen lungs" pneumonia

 

โรคปอดบวม bawt buam = ปอดอักเสบ  bawt aksep "inflamed lungs" pneumonia

 

http://www.medparkhospital.com/disease-and-treatment/pneumonia

 

 

These are precise translations which do  not take into accunt folk terms.

 

I have certainly heard Thais in the rural area where I live call pneumonia namtheum bawt or just water in the lungs.

 

That said, with the additional information provided by OP it is sounding like some sort of underlying heart problem (?maybe congenital?) So pulmonary edema definitely possible. 

[Sheryl]

1 hour ago, Presnock said:

that is what pneumonia is - water in the lungs and here any water in the lungs would be a flood as any is dangerous.

Actually pneumonia is an infection of the lungs.  Which may be accompanied by mucous like secretions (not water). 

[Sheryl]

3 hours ago, Cricky said:

Thank you Sheryl, I feel all your points are valid for this forum and should be addressed.

Her regular headaches and high blood pressure over the last couple of years worries me, I feel her heart is the problem. She is not overweight, only 44kg, height 156cm. so she seems in the normal range.

Over the weeks she has been discharged from hospital after initially spending around 10 days in (ICU). After leaving hospital she seemed fine, 100% but then slowly over a week or so started wheezing, difficulty breathing again, so she was placed back in ICU.

When we first met, she told me, as a teenager, still at school she couldn't walk for 3 months, she was in hospital for Autoimmune disease.

 

 Ok clearly there is one or more underlying chronic conditions.

 

You need to ask her:

 

1.  what is the name of the autoimmune disease she had/has, and does she take regular medicine for it.  Autoimmune diseases tend to be chronic and to need lifelong treatment. Lupus (SLE)  is particularly common in Southeast Asians.

 

2. Has she every been told she has any sort of congenital (present at birth) or genetic heart problem and if so, what. 

 

3. Has she ever been told she has a problem with one of the valves in her heart?

 

Definitely more to this story

 

[Ralf001]

59 minutes ago, Lorry said:

The "crap" didn't come from the lungs but from the airways. 

That's why it wasn't water but sputum (phlegm)

 

Yeah the vacuum tube they were stuffing down the intubation tube felt like it was going fairly deep into the lungs... but yeah not water obviously !

[Presnock]

3 hours ago, Lorry said:

The "crap" didn't come from the lungs but from the airways. 

That's why it wasn't water but sputum (phlegm)

yeah in Thai language, any liquid is called "naarm" so that is why they call anything liquid in the lungs as water.