Woman Eats Through This Organ Instead After Total Digestion Paralysis

At 30 years old, Sarah Cresswell's chronic illnesses mean she has a life different to many young adults—and this includes in the way she eats.

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

"I'm sharing my story to raise awareness of my conditions, and educate people on artificial nutrition," Cresswell, who lives in England, told Newsweek. "I want to help those in similar situations not to be afraid, and provide a safe place for them to ask questions about what life looks like on TPN."

Cresswell has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare connective tissue disorder that left her physically disabled. As well as this, she has gastroparesis, a condition that paralyzes the stomach.

To manage these conditions, she was initially fed through a nasojejunal (NJ) tube, threaded through her nose into her intestines. But, in July 2022, she contracted COVID-19. This caused Cresswell to go into intestinal failure, and she had to be fed via TPN. "It saved my life," she said.

For people using TPN, often either they or a caregiver will be given the instructions and materials required to set up and administer TPN. How often the system is changed depends on the patient's condition, but it is generally done every 24 to 48 hours.

Artificial nutrition such as TPN is an essential resource for treating a variety of conditions in children and adults. Research shows that more than 250,000 hospital stays involve tube feeding in the U.S., while around 600,000 patients receive tube-feeding therapies at home.

A video on her TikTok page @nauseatedsarah has more than 1.7 million views. Cresswell shares what TPN looks like for her as she prepares and administers her own set-up.

The caption reads: "I eat through my heart and I'm absolutely thriving!"

"I have never seen anything like this," wrote one commenter. "Amazing how positive you are."

Another posted: "This is genuinely so fascinating, thank you for sharing!"

Sarah relies on TPN daily as a method of delivering nutrients directly into her bloodstream. This life-sustaining treatment allows her to go about her daily life, and she wanted to share the realities of TPN with others.

Raising awareness and offering support for people who may be going through something similar, Cresswell hopes that her video will shine a spotlight on the realities of chronic illness and artificial nutrition.