A 35-year-old Jordanian gentleman presented with worsening right iliac fossa pain of three-day durations with vomiting, loose stool and intermittent fever. He later underwent laparoscopic surgery, which was subsequently converted to open laparotomy. Intraoperatively, there was thickened bowel with multiple mesenteric lymph nodes, and also thrombosis of the small bowel vein supplying the affected bowel lesion, the diagnosis which was later confi rmed with the histopathological report. Resection with end-to-end anastomosis was done during the surgery. Within one-week post laparotomy, he developed another progressive abdominal pain and distension, vomiting and no bowel opening. He was sent for another exploratory laparotomy. Intraoperatively, there was a gangrenous small bowel segment measuring 130 cm, with an intact large bowel and previous anastomotic site. Resection of 150 cm of the small bowel was subsequently done.
There is a scarcity of research on suicidal phenomena in the Muslim world. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the self-reported prevalence of suicidal thoughts, attempts and motives in 12 Muslim countries. A total of 8417 (54.4% women) university students were surveyed by means of a self-report questionnaire. Overall, 22% of the participants reported suicidal ideation and 8.6% reported attempting suicide. The odds of suicidal thoughts were elevated in Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, while reduced ORs were recorded in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Malaysia. While odds of suicide attempts were high in Azerbaijan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia reduced odds ratios (OR) were detected in Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia and Tunisia. Taking drugs and using a sharp instrument were the two most frequently used methods to attempt suicide. Only 32.7% of attempts required medical attention. Escape motives were endorsed more than social motives by participants who attempted suicide. Suicidal behaviors were more frequent in women than in men. Compered to men, fewer attempts by women required medical attention. Moreover, our results show that making suicide illegal does not reduce the frequency of suicidal behavior. Results from this comparative study show that suicidal thoughts and attempts are frequent events in young adults in countries where religious scripture explicitly prohibit suicide and the frequencies of nonfatal suicidal behavior show large variation in nations adhering to the same religion.