Hi. Thanks for your query. Noted the history of known diverticulitis 5 years ago and was not much troublesome since then but got severe pain today, like stabbing in the left lower abdomen and started sweating; pain lasted for about 5 minutes and then stopped, there is only little discomfort in the area. Wants to know when to know that the intestine has busted... When the intestine bursts, one gets similar severe pain in abdomen and then can collapsed due to vaso-vagal attack followed by a period of calmness to be followed by severe pain that does not even allow the patient to move at all. the abdomen becomes like a board, there may be nausea, vomiting, inability to pass bowel movement and gases, the abdomen starts bloating and one can collapse again due to dehydration and septic shock. When such a situation occurs, one should stop eating or drinking anything and report to the ER or the nearest hospital for X-ray of the abdomen for gas under diaphragm and may need an urgent exploration; earlier the better are the results.