Musician has had hiccups for 22 months Musician Christopher Sands, who has had hiccups for 22 months, has said he is beginning to lose hope of ever being cured. By Ben Leach Last Updated: 9:12AM GMT 05 Jan 2009
Sands has tried all kinds of remedies Photo: MASONS The 24-year-old has tried all manner of remedies - ranging from old wives' tales like eating honey while hanging upside down, to hi-tech cures such as sitting in a compression chamber - since his hiccupping fit began in February 2007. He said: "Last night I passed out on the floor because I can't breathe properly when my throat locks up with the hiccups. "All my friends have noticed how skinny I have been looking recently because I can't hold my food down." He is due to have surgery at Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, to stop him bringing up his food - a side-effect of the affliction. But he has been warned not to expect the operation on a damaged stomach valve to cure him. He said: "They are going to do keyhole surgery to grab a bit of my stomach and wrap it around the top of itself and it should tighten the stomach valve. "Hopefully this will stop me from being sick. The doctors said it should make me more comfortable and able to deal with it, but that it won't help with the hiccups. "No one has been able to give me any hope. It is getting to the point where I'm running out of things to try - the point of no cure. I'm still very chirpy, it hasn't managed to bring me down yet." Mr Sands still has some way to go before his hiccupping enters the record books. The longest hiccupping fit was recorded by Charles Osborne, of Anthon, Iowa, whose hiccups lasted for 68 years from 1922 until 1990. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4123677/Musician-has-had- hiccups-for-22-months.html
