Woman Who Eats Through Her Heart

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

9 July 2024

A woman in the UK has been forced to eat her food through her heart after suffering from a rare chronic illness

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

30-year-old Sarah Cresswell lives with intestinal failure as a result of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome 

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah


Her condition has resulted in gastroparesis, a disorder that slows or stops food moving from the stomach into the small intestine

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

Her digestive system is essentially paralysed, meaning she can't eat food in the same way that other people do

Image: Unsplash

Instead, she gets her nutrition with the help of total parenteral nutrition (TPN), a method of tube feeding that bypasses the gastrointestinal tract

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

Total Parenteral Nutrition is a feeding tube that goes straight into the bloodstream through the heart and gives the patient all the nutrients they need for the day

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

To receive nutrition through her TPN, she attaches a Hickman line to her chest underneath her collarbone and over and into the top of her heart

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

The TPN runs for 12 hours overnight until she wakes up in the morning, at which point she disconnects everything and gets on with her day 

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

The emulsion contains all of the nutrients and calories she needs except for vitamins, for which she takes a multivitamin tablet instead

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

She regularly posts about the realities of her everyday life with a rare condition on her TikTok and Instagram accounts

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

Sarah is currently raising funds for an electric wheelchair so that she can have more independence with her chronic illness

Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

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Image: Instagram/nauseatedsarah

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