heart surgery

[tree beard]

sorry, this has nothing really to do with martial arts, but...

my 13-year-old brother-in-law had a valve replacement surgery done on his heart (don't know what it is called). anyway, this was done on tuesday (today is saturday) and when he came into recovery, he had strange markings on his back. i will get a picture to post later. it is a red line that goes across his back (would line up with his nipples if on the front) and is jagged on top and bottom. looks almost like a tribal tattoo, only red. the doctors had no idea what it might be and released him today anyway. it is not raised like a welt and he says that it burns. it also has not faded at all since it was noticed. does anyone know of such a thing happening after surgery?

[herb ox]

I hope you upload the photo! This is very interesting stuff... could it be that a nerve plexus was irritated or stimulated in a way that causes the capillaries of a strip of flesh on the back to fill with blood? The horizontal strip brings 'dermatomes' to mind; these strips of flesh on the body run from side to side, each innervated by a nerve plexus connected to the spinal cord and exiting from between the vertebrae.

See http://www.apparelyzed.com/dermatome.html for a diagram of what I'm referring to.

peace

herb ox

[JohnnyMnemonic]

sorry, this has nothing really to do with martial arts, but...

my 13-year-old brother-in-law had a valve replacement surgery done on his heart (don't know what it is called). anyway, this was done on tuesday (today is saturday) and when he came into recovery, he had strange markings on his back. i will get a picture to post later. it is a red line that goes across his back (would line up with his nipples if on the front) and is jagged on top and bottom. looks almost like a tribal tattoo, only red. the doctors had no idea what it might be and released him today anyway. it is not raised like a welt and he says that it burns. it also has not faded at all since it was noticed. does anyone know of such a thing happening after surgery?

How did they put in the heart valve?

Does the mark on his back match where they cracked open his ribcage to get at his heart? Did the saw cut from nipple to nipple on the front?