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Medical Mysteries, Bizarre Cases

In 2018 this Russian woman noticed a lump beneath the skin on her face. Then the lump moved ... She was infected with a mosquito-borne parasitic worm with a known range of Europe, Africa and Asia. Luckily, the worm is relatively benign and its removal is all that's required.




FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/62864-worm-crawling-under-skin.html

(c) seems to be the “in” look these days. l thought it was just filler.

maximus otter
 
The family with no fingerprints

Apu Sarker was showing his open palm to me on a video call from his home in Bangladesh. Nothing seemed unusual at first, but as I looked closer I could see the smooth surfaces of his fingertips.
Apu, who is 22, lives with his family in a village in the northern district of Natore. He was working as a medical assistant until recently. His father and his grandfather were farmers.
The men in Apu's family appear to share a genetic mutation so rare it is thought to affect only a small handful of families in the world: they have no fingerprints.
Back in the day of Apu's grandfather, having no fingerprints was no big deal. "I don't think he ever thought of it as a problem," Apu said.
But over the decades, the tiny grooves that swirl around our fingertips - known properly as dermatoglyphs - have become the world's most collected biometric data. We use them for everything from passing through airports to voting and opening our smartphones.
(C) BBC. '20
 
About 10 years ago my mother was in the Intensive Care Unit on a respirator (she got better). Just as my brother and me arrived on a visit, we were shoo'd out of ICU as her heart rate shot up to 196. It took 20 mins to determine that an infusion needle recently inserted into a cannula/needle port on her chest had penetrated 1-2 mm too deep and the tip was "tickling" her heart with every beat.
Whilst waiting in the visitor room I was chatting to a couple whose mother hadn't been responding to an insulin drip. After 2 days the ICU staff discovered that the drip needle had missed the vein and was pumping insulin into the muscle and then leaking into the bed.
On the whole the ICU Staff were magnificent.
 
I haven't read this but was tempted by it when I saw it listed in a book catalog: The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/580443/the-mystery-of-the-exploding-teeth-by-thomas-morris/

“Delightfully horrifying…Do yourself a favor and preorder it so that you can gross everyone out at Thanksgiving.”
–Popular Science

“A gruesome but weirdly compelling trip through several centuries of quack cures, horrific operations, and bizarre accidents.”
New York Daily News

“Replete with tales such as “the human pincushion” and “suffocated by a fish,” The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth is a bewildering walk through medical history that will astonish readers. This book proves that truth is indeed stranger—and more stomach-churning—than fiction. Between the toasting forks projectiles and deadly dentures, there are lessons a-plenty on how not to die.”
–Lydia Kang, MD, author of Quackery
 
I haven't read this but was tempted by it when I saw it listed in a book catalog: The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/580443/the-mystery-of-the-exploding-teeth-by-thomas-morris/

“Delightfully horrifying…Do yourself a favor and preorder it so that you can gross everyone out at Thanksgiving.”
–Popular Science

“A gruesome but weirdly compelling trip through several centuries of quack cures, horrific operations, and bizarre accidents.”
New York Daily News

“Replete with tales such as “the human pincushion” and “suffocated by a fish,” The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth is a bewildering walk through medical history that will astonish readers. This book proves that truth is indeed stranger—and more stomach-churning—than fiction. Between the toasting forks projectiles and deadly dentures, there are lessons a-plenty on how not to die.”
–Lydia Kang, MD, author of Quackery
Sounds like a good bathroom reader, (LOL).
 
Well here is a charming little video that turned up in my Youtube in-tray this evening!

"Get rid of the super strong ticks on the boy's ear & face"

The poster calls herself "Mary Dandruff Scratching" and she has posted many similar things.

I'm unclear how these patients accumulate so many of these things and why they leave them undisturbed until they seek medical help.

I'm not sure I want to know! :omg: :omg: :omg: :willy::willy::willy:
 
Well here is a charming little video that turned up in my Youtube in-tray this evening!

"Get rid of the super strong ticks on the boy's ear & face"

The poster calls herself "Mary Dandruff Scratching" and she has posted many similar things.

I'm unclear how these patients accumulate so many of these things and why they leave them undisturbed until they seek medical help.

I'm not sure I want to know! :omg: :omg: :omg: :willy::willy::willy:
WTF!
Why do people not try to remove them?
 
Someone's having a lend of us. Notice how easy those cattle ticks come off, and also notice that there are no puncture wounds.

Ticks are hard to remove, with the head, half the time, being left in situ.

Ticks have an effect on the central nervous system also, with one tick sufficient to make a dog quite ill, if not kill it - Why is this young Lad still breathing?

They look more like Pawpaw seed to me.

I have been wrong before but no one leaves a tick alone, never mind 80 or 90.
 
Some of that poster's other videos show geometric colour-patterns in these supposed ticks. Given the lack of any medical information, I am thinking it may all be devised simply to elicit a gag-reflex, though it seems somewhat obsessive and elaborate. Maybe it's a fetish?
 
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Some of the same poster's other videos show geometric colour-patterns in these supposed ticks.
@JamesWhitehead - this is one of the oddest things I've ever seen.

I struggle to interpret what the hell we're being presented with here......

This looks to be almost some form of semi-consensual body adornment/ body modification, nearly a quasi-3D organic version of a henna tattoo.

I agree with @Mungoman - these so-called 'ticks' are applique affixtures, topical not endermal. All parasites, ipso facto, attach to a host in order to feed or reproduce, these are not causing puncture wounds/inflammation or puckering. These curious seeds/beans (if that is their nature) are certainly insectoid, but I wonder if they might actually be cultured microfungi manually attached with something like latex or polyvinyl adhesive?

I'm uncomfortable about exactly what these youngsters are experiencing, in terms of their overall interaction with the practitioner. Whilst accepting that there may be some form of intercultural misconceptualisation happening with me, there are many aspects to this that are unquestionably / undeniably odd.

ps that 'dandruff' looks much more like dehydrated beeswax with plaster, applied to the scalp, as opposed to accreted skin cells. Plus, the distribution is unrealistic - unless there's a real outlier explanation.

pps if this is a form of body art, a name for what it could be called has come to me. But I'll not say it for now
 
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Someone's having a lend of us. Notice how easy those cattle ticks come off, and also notice that there are no puncture wounds.

Ticks are hard to remove, with the head, half the time, being left in situ.

Ticks have an effect on the central nervous system also, with one tick sufficient to make a dog quite ill, if not kill it - Why is this young Lad still breathing?

They look more like Pawpaw seed to me.

I have been wrong before but no one leaves a tick alone, never mind 80 or 90.
Stuck on for the purposes of the video.
Yep, ticks require a special tool to remove them, otherwise their mouthparts may be left in the skin.
 
... These curious seeds/beans (if that is their nature) are certainly insectoid, but I wonder if they might actually be cultured microfungi manually attached with something like latex or polyvinyl adhesive? ...
There's obviously an issue of imperfect translation happening with this person's YouTube channel. I'm not even sure the original intention was to illustrate anything relating to ticks (as in blood-suckers).

I did find an oblique reference to the channel having content relating to patterns or scenes created using "cereal" (as in "grain"), and most of the "ticks" resemble seeds.

I've never seen engorged ticks that displayed no evidence of legs, no matter how swollen out of proportion they were.
 
Having lived in the country, I am familiar with wood ticks and immediately questioned the video. Engorged ticks don't just come off with tweezers. Also, wood ticks, at least, turn greyish colour when engorged. I also question the placement and overall regular outlines of the "mass".
 
My sister has dry mouth and dry eyes called Sjogren’s Syndrome which has also affected her teeth and gums.

She basically lives on ice cream because it makes her mouth feel better.

There are lots of weird immune diseases in this world.
 
A two-word phrase I never imagined I'd see in print: "rectal ejaculation". Combined with the peeing of poots as well as poop, this guy couldn't tell whether (or where ... ) he was coming or going.
Man Ejaculates Out Of His Anus For Two Years Before Seeking Help

A team of doctors has documented what they have called "a curious case of rectal ejaculation".

A 33-year-old man sought medical attention after five days of pain in his testicles. This turned out to be the latest in a long line of problems in that general area. For the last two years, he had been passing gas in his urine (pneumaturia), urinating fecal matter (fecaluria), and passing a "substantial amount" of urine and semen from his rectum (there isn't even a fancy medical word for it, that's how rare this is). ...

All in all, liquids, solids, and gasses were not going out of the passage they traditionally emerge from, long before the pain in his testicles prompted him to finally seek treatment.

The team, who published their case study in the journal Cureus, found the patient to have a swollen testicle. Labs showed signs of a urinary tract infection, while a digital rectal exam showed signs of a problem on his rectal wall. ...

The scan showed a "gas-filled structure". Further tests confirmed the presence of a fistula (an abnormal passageway) between the urethra and rectum, through which the various fluids and solids had been passing. As well as repairing the fistula through surgery, the team looked for possible causes of the problem but ruled out things such as tuberculosis, inflammatory bowel disease, rectal trauma, or penetration.

Upon further investigation, they found that two years prior – around the onset of symptoms – he had been in a three-week coma following cocaine and phencyclidine (PCP) intoxication. During his hospital stay, he was fitted with a Foley catheter, during which the injury was likely caused. ...

"Repeat VCUG revealed resolution of the fistula and the patient recovered with only mildly reduced antegrade ejaculatory volume over several months," the team wrote. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.iflscience.com/health-a...f-his-anus-for-two-years-before-seeking-help/
 
Here are the bibliographic details and abstract from the published report. The full report is accessible at the link below.

Ventura F L, Nguyen C M, Dang A, et al. (August 20, 2021)
A Curious Case of Rectal Ejaculation.
Cureus 13(8): e17330.
doi:10.7759/cureus.17330
Abstract
Rectal-prostate fistulas are uncommon anatomical connections between the prostatic urethra and rectum that are typically iatrogenic but can also result from other underlying pathology. Here, we present a unique case of a rectal-prostate fistula causing the rectal passage of sperm.

A 33-year-old male with a history of illicit drug use presented with five days of testicular pain and a substantial amount of sperm passage from his rectum with ejaculation for the past two years. Computed tomography and voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) of the pelvis revealed evidence of a rectal-prostate fistula. He was treated with piperacillin-tazobactam, and a surgical fistula repair was performed. Further investigation divulged a three-week comatose state due to cocaine and phencyclidine intoxication two years prior with documentation suggesting a traumatic Foley catheter placement and strong suspicion for premature balloon dilation in the prostatic urethra. Repeat VCUG revealed resolution of the fistula with mildly reduced antegrade ejaculatory volume.

Cases secondary to Foley catheter placement have not been previously reported in the literature. Even though urethral catheters have been shown to be effective tools in healthcare, it is crucial for clinicians to recognize the numerous potential complications that oftentimes become an afterthought to many providers. This case not only highlights a rare complication of catheter use but also emphasizes the importance of provider mindfulness when utilizing seemingly benign therapies such as Foley catheters.
SOURCE / FULL REPORT: https://www.cureus.com/articles/68327-a-curious-case-of-rectal-ejaculation
 
This man had a procedure during which medical cement was injected into his spine to repair a damaged vertebra. A hardened barb of the cement worked its way into the patient's heart and punctured his lung.
Doctors find 10cm cement chunk poking its way through man's heart

Doctors in the US have taken a 10cm-long chunk of cement out of a 56-year-old's heart, giving a bizarre explanation as to how it got there in the first place.

In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors Gabe Weininger and John Elefteriades described how the man showed up in an emergency room with chest pain and shortness of breath.

When they looked at scans, they found a 10 centimetre long sharp object puncturing his right lung. ...

During surgery doctors pulled the narrow object out of his chest, and found it was a cement embolism.

The cement got there as a complication of a procedure the patient had a week earlier.

In kyphoplasty, polymethylmethacrylate medical cement is injected into the spine of a patient as part of the process of repairing damaged vertebrae.

It appeared the cement had worked its way from the spine into the man's heart. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.9news.com.au/health/con...s-health/b51c267d-58f9-4b8b-a1dd-b7f1d2ae4aef
 
A patient's nasal obstruction turned out to be caused by an ectopic (out-of-place) tooth in his nasal cavity.
A Man Grew a Tooth in His Nose

A man’s years of trouble breathing through his nose turned out to have a much stranger explanation than anyone could have imagined. His doctors, in a paper out this week, describe finding a tooth poking through his nasal cavity. Thankfully, the wayward chomper was removed with no complications, and the man’s stuffy symptoms went away.

The study on the nose tooth was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to the report, a 38-year-old man had visited an ear, nose, throat clinic at Mount Sinai in New York with complaints of difficulty breathing through his right nostril—a problem that had been going on for several years at that point.

Physical examination revealed a deviated septum (the cartilage in the middle that separates one nostril from the other, which can get displaced for various reasons), along with some kind of bony obstruction and a two-centimeter-long tear towards the back of the septum. When they looked closer using a rhinoscope—basically a camera attached to a tube—they found a “hard, nontender, white mass” sticking out of the floor of the nostril. And when they ran a CT scan, they clearly identified what this mass was: a tooth growing where it shouldn’t have been. ...

In anatomical terms, the man had an ectopic tooth, ectopic being a catch-all term for the abnormal placement of a body part. Ectopic teeth can happen for several reasons. Sometimes, our permanent adult teeth can grow out, or erupt, in an unusual path. Other times, the process of replacing our baby teeth doesn’t go quite right and a baby tooth ends up being pushed out by its adult counterpart, but doesn’t fall out as expected and just stays in our mouth, albeit in a very awkward position. Or, an extra tooth could spontaneously appear even in adulthood. ...
FULL STORY: https://gizmodo.com/a-man-grew-a-tooth-in-his-nose-1848150467
 
I swear I was looking for something completely unrelated!
Kind of old news now, but who can resist a story about brain weirdness? (If you're squeamish, you may want to cover the photo.)
https://www.wired.com/2009/02/pigbrainmystery/

"More than a year after developing a mysterious neurological disorder eventually linked to their inhalation of aerosolized pig brains, 24 pork plant workers have regained their health."
Funny, covid protocols would have prevented this I think.
 
Here's a Radio 4 programme about a serious illness that was diagnosed with the help of a toy penguin. :cool:

Anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis is a rare condition which can cause symptoms similar to those of psychosis and so can be misdiagnosed with serious consequences.

This happened to 'Bex', a 20 year-old student, who was admitted to hospital with serious problems including seizures and hallucinations.

Her correct diagnosis was helped along when the neurologist noticed her attachment to the toy penguin. This suggested a developmental regression found in Anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis which he had seen once before as a young doctor.

Safe BBC link -
Room 5

In Room 5, Helena Merriman interviews people who - like her - were changed by a diagnosis.

Here is an explanatory page from the UK registered charity The Encephalitis Society.
The author is the same consultant neurologist, Sarosh Irani, who diagnosed Bex in the R4 programme.

NMDAR ANTIBODY ENCEPHALITIS

Symptoms

At onset, the most distinctive features include prominent psychiatric symptoms, seizures, confusion and memory loss.

Patients will sometimes show bizarre and often rather disturbing behaviours, with mood changes and are often initially looked after in mental health hospitals.

They may see things which aren’t there, develop strange beliefs or appear agitated.

Typically 10 to 20 days later, patients develop a movement disorder, variations in blood pressure, heart rate and temperature and may become less conscious.

The movement disorder often consists of continuous writhing and twitching of face and limbs but can also be a generalised slowing-down of movement.

Most patients develop several of these features, but very rarely individual patients may experience only a few of these features.

I am full of admiration for Sarosh Irani. What I'd call a real doctor. You know what I mean. :)
 
I think this fits here.

A 28-year-old man from Shenzhen, China had suffered from terrible headaches his whole life. As they became more intense and frequent, he finally visited a doctor at the Shenzhen University General Hospital. An MRI revealed a metal pellet lodged in his skull that the fellow never knew was there. From Oddity Central:

Interestingly, Chen remembered that when he was about 8-years-old, he and his brother were playing with an air gun at home, when the gun accidentally went off, shooting him in the side of the head. He and his brother were afraid of being scolded by their parents, so they didn't say a thing, and the wound was covered up by his hair, so the parents couldn't really see it. Plus, the wound wasn't too painful, so he eventually forgot about it.
Surgeons removed the projectile and the man is reportedly recovering at home.

https://boingboing.net/2022/02/02/m...-pellet-lodged-in-his-skull-for-20-years.html
 
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Man almost loses tip of his penis after trapped pubic hairs 'matted and formed a tight ring' around his glans


A man nearly lost part of his penis after pubic hair got caught around his tip and cut off its blood supply.

Medics claim the uncircumcised man's ordeal — which has left him with a deformed member — could have been avoided if he washed properly.

The 57-year-old, who wasn't named, 'rarely' retracted his foreskin to clean, according to the Australian urologists who treated him.

He also urinated sitting down, meaning that the build-up of hair that collected under his foreskin went unnoticed.

Surgeons described the hairs as being 'matted together' and having formed a 'tight ring' under his glans — the head of the penis.

The man, from Geelong, Victoria, was in pain for a fortnight before seeking help. He also had a swollen glans.

After pulling back his foreskin they found the mass of hairs tied around the penis just below the head, strangling its width to just 0.4 inches (1cm) in diameter.

Hospital doctors described the man — who suffered from anxiety, depression, type 2 diabetes and hypertension — as being 'unkempt'. [A new entry in the "Understatement of the Year" competition... M.O.]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...ped-pubic-hairs-matted-formed-tight-ring.html

More gooey details of medical treatment vs. human stupidity at link.

maximus otter
 
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