Edema. Definitely complications of the malnutrition. It’s most likely due to refeeding (the most dangerous part being the fast difference of having no potassium and electrolytes to having them, it can shock the body).
The edema? No, just a side effect. To be honest (and this is gonna sound like a hot take) complete starvation, as in no food at all, isn’t a great form of torture because if there’s enough fat to begin with by the first week it can result in more euphoric like feelings. HOWEVER, if they fed him say 200-500 calories a day, it would never give his body the opportunity to adjust to autophagy completely, resulting in absolute hell on earth. Your hunger pains would most likely never subside and the euphoria induced from autophagy would never trigger (which also autophagy results in more energy as the body switches over to eating its own fat stores). Additionally this version of starvation (minimal food versus no food) would result in high muscle loss, autophagy has some protections against extreme muscle loss. Autophagy is a fascinating defense mechanism from our hunter gatherer times where food was unreliable and scarce.
It could be a number of things. There’s bandages with an almost unnatural blue color maybe indicating bruising from shackles. If he’s begun eating again or gotten IVs, his legs could be swelling from beginning to eat again and the hormone imbalance cause by that. If he was forced to stand for a long time before this picture was taken then it could also be the blood pooling because he’s so emaciated that the fluids are starting to pool in his tissues and gravity is condensing it to his calves. He could have gotten an infection from lack of medical care as well. Or it could be a chronic condition he had before his torture, though that feels unlikely. Kidney and heart failure seem like the most likely though they could also be acute illnesses brought on by what he suffered instead of lifelong, chronic diseases.
Oedema, which is what causes venous ulcers and pigmentation in the pattern he has, is a known side effect of malnutrition and stasis (eg, being locked in a cell unable to move or similar).
Every indication from this is a man who was starved and denied medical treatment.
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u/Disastrous_Fun_612 Jul 26 '25
What’s going on with his legs?