A teenager was left with horrifying “childbirth-like” injuries after bike handlebars smashed into her vagina.
The 18-year-old, who was not named by doctors, developed shocking blood and fluid-filled swellings around the vulva.
Shocking photos published in the British Medical Journal show the vulva lips have ballooned and blackened from the injury.
The doctors, from Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, explained how the incident happened.
They said the female turned up at the hospital with “extreme pain” and inability to urinate.
The symptoms started “following a collision on a push-bicycle, where the handle bars of the bicycle collided directly with her external genitalia”.
But the woman had waited three days before seeking medical help after the accident.
On examination, doctors found a large swollen hematoma.
A hematoma is a swelling of blood, ranging from tiny blood blisters to huge, bulging masses.
When it occurs around the vagina, it’s usually due to injury or childbirth – caused by pushing the baby out or from forceps.
Dr. Amy Worrall and colleagues wrote: “Vulval injuries of this nature are most often seen postnatally in women following childbirth, in particular following operative vaginal deliveries.”
“Other causes include trauma, forceful intercourse, sexual abuse, injection into genital vessels and saddle injuries, as in this case relating to certain sporting activities (cycling, horse riding etc).”
The Dublin doctors said the swollen tissue was “grossly oedematous” – meaning filled with pus-like fluid – and bleeding.
The poor young woman was given morphine and a catheter to empty her bladder. Under anesthetic, doctors were able to drain the hematoma.
Three months later, the patient was fully recovered.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission.