Bloody Nose

Epistaxis (or a nosebleed ) is the relatively common occurrence of hemorrhage from the nose, usually noticed when the blood drains out through the nostrils. There are two types: anterior (the most common), and posterior (less common, more likely to require medical attention). Sometimes in more severe cases, the blood can come up the nasolacrimal duct and out from the eye. Fresh blood and clotted blood can also flow down into the stomach and cause nausea and vomiting. It is rarely fatal, accounting for only 4 of the 2.4 million deaths in the U.S. in 1999. Perhaps the most well-known Epistaxis-related death was that of Attila the Hun. He drank a colossal amount of alcohol on his wedding night after his parley with Pope Leo I, suffered a nosebleed in his sleep and was suffocated by the blood.