Thread: Christensen: Pavano's shoveling accident nearly fatal

Pavano's shoveling accident was nearly fatal | StarTribune.com

People can joke all they want about the fragility of former Twins SP Carl Pavano. Plenty of jokes were made recently about his shoveling accident, but when you read just how serious it was, hopefully people take a step back.

Pavano, 37, said he jammed his midsection on a shovel handle and didn't realize he had lacerated his spleen until four days later. By the time he finally had surgery to remove the spleen, on Jan. 19, doctors first had to remove 6 1/2 liters of blood from his chest cavity.

He said he lost 35 pounds in three weeks. At least he can laugh about it now. At 230 pounds, he's as trim as he was as a rookie, he said, but too weak to lift his kids, ages 3 and 4.

You have got to know what your doctor is god at doing and what they are not.

Pavano was interviewed about it: Carl Pavano, Free Agent P, discusses rupturing his spleen by SiriusXM Sports on SoundCloud - Hear the world?s sounds

Wow, that is scary.

I'm sure all Twins fans' thoughts and prayers are with him. Anybody's, really, of course.

Damn...6 and a half liters? That is one hell of an accident.

Yikes, I still hope the Twins bring him in on a minor league contract, if he is healthy he is a helluva a clubhouse guy and can give you a low 4's ERA with close to 200 IP. (Which very well could make him an ace on this staff)

Good lord. The human body only has about 5 liters of blood in it. That can't be right.

Yes, but as he bleeds internally new blood is being created to replace it.

Carl Pavano is not a Twins pitcher. Shouldn't this be in the general baseball forum? I believe someone got scolded for posting their own thread about Perez when there was an article. I'd assume non-Twins related threads shouldn't clutter the already-busy Twins forum?

Damn. That is scary. Hope for a quick recovery.

Originally Posted by FrodaddyG

Carl Pavano is not a Twins pitcher. Shouldn't this be in the general baseball forum? I believe someone got scolded for posting their own thread about Perez when there was an article. I'd assume non-Twins related threads shouldn't clutter the already-busy Twins forum?

Please refrain from making off-topic posts.

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

Good lord. The human body only has about 5 liters of blood in it. That can't be right.

For someone the size of Pavano is probably like 6-7L, but blood is not the main body fluid (believe it or not.)
An adult male has about .5 their weight in kilos as body fluid. So for someone the size of Pavano (100 kilos -220 lbs - he weighs more but whatever) has about 50 liters of fluid in their bodies. About 2/3 of it is intracellular (the fluid inside our cells) and 1/3 extracellular. So extracellular (including blood, sweat and tears) is a good 15 litters. When blood leaks internally, the kidneys decrease urine fluid production and increase blood fluid production to keep the blood pressure constant. So the first thing you will see in cases like this is concentrated urine, like in dehydration situations. And in slow leaks like this more water increases urine production, so hard to tell... That's why internal bleeding is such a killer. Very hard to detect and there are not many symptoms if it is slow, until your BP pummels and that is bad.

Why didn't Pavano get a job this winter? My understanding was that with bone bruises, you just have to rest till they go away. They're not really a source of long-term damage like a torn ligament might be. Am I wrong?

Originally Posted by thrylos98

For someone the size of Pavano is probably like 6-7L, but blood is not the main body fluid (believe it or not.)
An adult male has about .5 their weight in kilos as body fluid. So for someone the size of Pavano (100 kilos -220 lbs - he weighs more but whatever) has about 50 liters of fluid in their bodies. About 2/3 of it is intracellular (the fluid inside our cells) and 1/3 extracellular. So extracellular (including blood, sweat and tears) is a good 15 litters. When blood leaks internally, the kidneys decrease urine fluid production and increase blood fluid production to keep the blood pressure constant. So the first thing you will see in cases like this is concentrated urine, like in dehydration situations. And in slow leaks like this more water increases urine production, so hard to tell... That's why internal bleeding is such a killer. Very hard to detect and there are not many symptoms if it is slow, until your BP pummels and that is bad.

When did MedHelp hijack Twins Daily?