Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson YouTube screenshot

A Florida man has turned to YouTube for help with his chronic belching, which he says hasn’t stopped in the two years since he had an operation.

Ron Johnson, a 58-year-old Army National Guard veteran from Venice, Florida, made the video titled “Medical Mystery Belching Man” on Monday. He said the burping started in 2012 and decided to go to the Sarasota County Health Department to try and cure the affliction.

“They were baffled,” Johnson said. “Nobody ever heard anything like this or seen anything like it.”

Johnson said in January 2013, a doctor there prescribed him Ritalin in hopes of stopping the chronic belching.

“The belching stopped, but by October it was back and I was suffering every psychological side effect, including a Parkinson’s syndrome-type side effect from that drug. No one has been able to figure out what is wrong with me,” he continued. “I’ve had every gastro test that was available to me through the health department. They say I’m fine.”

Johnson said the only way the chronic belching slows down is when he’s lying down.

“I can’t do anything from a recliner,” the Florida man says as he repeatedly belches throughout the video. “It’s embarrassing to go out in public because this just does not stop.”

He told My Fox Tampa Bay that he woke up with the problem after waking up from surgery. The station’s Dr. Joette Govinco spoke to Johnson over the phone, and while she couldn’t diagnose him without seeing him, she had her theories as to the cause of the chronic belching.

"One of the things that comes to mind is a neurological problem,” she said. “Something where a nerve may be irritated. It continues to fire an impulse. That impulse makes his way to the muscle, and then you get these uncontrolled contractions over and over and over again.”

The Army vet appealed to YouTube users “or anyone in the medical community or anybody that has experienced this, heard of it [and] might be able to tell me how I can get this to stop” for advice on stopping the belching.

“This is no life,” he said, adding that his medical coverage doesn’t kick in until he reached 60 years of age. “I’m just stuck. I have no income and this is killing me.”

Johnson urged anyone who can help to contact him via email at rjsk_42@yahoo.com

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