At Tokyo Medical University Hospital a fart reportedly sparked a fire that caused serious burns to a patient in April.
The hospital released a report Oct. 28 by a committee of outside experts that determined that the April 15 fire started when a patient in her 30s passed gas during a surgery that involved the application of laser to her cervix, the Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun reported.
"When the patient’s intestinal gas leaked into the space of the operation (room), it ignited with the irradiation of the laser, and the burning spread, eventually reaching the surgical drape and causing the fire," the report said, according to the newspaper, which also noted that no flammable materials were in the operating room at the time and all equipment was functioning properly.
The woman suffered burns to much of her body, including her waist and legs, the newspaper said.
The unlikely incident prompted an entry on Snopes.com, which classified the story as "odd news."
Flatulence contains a combination of gasses like carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and methane, rendering them flammable for about a third of people, The Washington Post noted.
"It's difficult to overstate how minuscule the chance of that normal bodily function causing a problem truly is," the Post reported.
Still, the Post pointed out a case written about in Robert Provine's book "Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond" where a patient undergoing colonic polyp cauterization died when a spark ignited his bowels.
Lighting farts on fire has long been seen as a juvenile prank. Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage even explored the phenomenon for an episode of Discovery's "MythBusters."
A 12-year-old boy in the United Kingdom was taken to the hospital after suffering burns during a fart-lighting competition with his cousin in 2008, The Telegraph reported.
While the Japanese woman's injuries are no laughing matter, the circumstances surrounding them drew attention on Twitter.
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