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Medical Mysteries, Bizarre Cases

kamalktk said:
In Snowflake, people tell Kathleen Hale they have found refuge in the desert to escape fragrances, electricity, Wi-Fi and other facets of modern life
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The cult movie Safe (the Julianne Moore one) is about this subject. I thought it was science fiction, but maybe not.
 
I have to admit I've always fancied eye flash, it has such a brilliantly feral quality to it.

Dunno if this case is real or fake. It seems a bit too good to be true, unless we have ancestors that had night vision and the genes got switched on again in this instance:

A young Chinese boy who was born with beaming blue eyes has stunned medics with his ability to see in pitch black darkness.

Nong Yousui from Dahua, China has eyes that reflect neon green when light is shined on them. Doctors have studied Nong’s amazing eyesight since his dad took him to hospital concerned over his bright blue eyes. “They told me he would grow out of it and that his eyes would stop glowing and turn black like most Chinese people but they never did”, his Dad said.

Nong enjoys playing outside with his schoolmates but experiences discomfort when in bright sunlight, however can see completely clearly in pure darkness. To test his abilities, a Chinese journalist prepared a set of questionnaires which he was able to finish while sitting in a pitch black room. The tests show Nong can read and write perfectly without any light and can see as clearly as most people do during the day. According to the World Record Academy (the leading international organization which certify world records), Nong has even set the world record for the first human who can see in the dark.
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TruthInsideofYou

The website seemed like it might be flaky, a quick google shows more or less the same text at MedicalDaily

The only condition I'm aware of that gives night vision in human is one where there's no cone cells in the eyes, so better night vision comes at the expense of colour and poorer day vision.
 
I didn't think that any creature could visually see with their eyes in absolute darkness?

Although, as I was typing this, I'm reminded of an article about how reindeer are the only mammal known to see in UV. And their eyes change from gold in summer to blue in winter, when its dark! (Google turns up many articles about it.:))

So maybe, with his striking blue eyes, this kid can see in complete darkness??

Weird, but a very cool ability, that I would love to have!
 
Dark colored eyes see better in bright light while light colored eyes see better in dim lighting. Natural variation at work. Dark eyes are more numerous in the bright tropics while light eyes are more numerous in the higher latitudes with their months of darkness.
 
Wreckless said:
Dark colored eyes see better in bright light while light colored eyes see better in dim lighting. Natural variation at work. Dark eyes are more numerous in the bright tropics while light eyes are more numerous in the higher latitudes with their months of darkness.
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That makes sense. Well observed.
 
OneWingedBird said:
The only condition I'm aware of that gives night vision in human is one where there's no cone cells in the eyes, so better night vision comes at the expense of colour and poorer day vision.
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Known in the medical world as riddicitis, I believe.
 
Lancashire man performs DIY operation on himself to remove suture
3 hours ago

An engineer who was left with 8in (20cm) of surgical stitches inside his body after an operation has performed surgery on himself to remove them.
Graham Smith admitted he was reckless, but the pain had made him desperate.
"There was a bit of blood and it stung a bit but I was confident in what I was doing," said Mr Smith, of Lancashire.

Aintree Hospital, Liverpool, where he underwent the original surgery, said he had been booked in for an operation on Monday and it would contact him.

The suture was left in Mr Smith's abdomen during a bowel operation 15 years ago, but he did not bring it to the attention of the hospital until 2011, having noticed a length of the stitches protruding through his skin.

However, at least two operations to remove it since then had to be cancelled, the hospital has confirmed.
"I tried to do it through the normal channels... but I had septicaemia," Mr Smith said.
"I didn't make the decision lightly - I was desperate, but I had to take control of it and I was not prepared to sit and die on a waiting list.
"I'm a specialist engineer. I do jobs people can't do, but I'm not a surgeon so don't try this at at home."
...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-37361456
 
He's a clever man, and it's fortunate that he's OK.
It does show how poor some NHS care has become, though. :(
 
I suspect I am too worn out but am happy for all bits to be donated - why not the main corpse? As long as there is something for my full Latin Mass and the ceremony afterwards.
 
Mythopoeika said:
There are brain dead people in hospitals, being kept alive by machines.
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If they are brain dead they surely can't give consent themselves. Can't see too many family members being willing to sign off on their loved one being decapitated.
 
Mythopoeika said:
There are brain dead people in hospitals, being kept alive by machines.
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True. If they are brain dead they're not going to be kept 'alive' indefinitely though, at least not in Britain. The doctors will explain the issues to the relations and suggest the best outcome.

The reason for this, apart from the person's dignity, possibility of suffering, what they'd prefer themselves and so on, is that if the brain is truly dead the body can't be kept going indefinitely. It starts to deteriorate.

For example - Brain-dead mum-to-be kept alive for two months so her baby could be born

After suffering a catastrophic stroke, why was Karla Perez kept alive for only two months? Why not carry on until her expected date of delivery? It's because her brain started to break down and tiny shreds of it found their way into her bloodstream. This would have affected the placenta and endangered her unborn baby, so he had to be delivered early.

Happily, he survived and is thriving.
 
A teenager in India has a 20cm 'tail' removed from his back

A teenager with a 20cm "tail" growing at the bottom of his spine has undergone surgery to have it removed.

It started to appear on the 18-year-old's back just after his 14th birthday.
He and his family, from Nagpur in India, had kept it a secret because they were worried he would be bullied.
They finally went to see a doctor after it grew too long to hide - and had begun to develop a bone inside.

It's thought to be the longest ever recorded on a human - although cases are very rare.

"It became a problem when the tail grew outside the body," said his mum, who doesn't want to be named.
"He would just lift the tail every time he needed to change his clothes.
"I could see that it was very annoying and painful for him, so I took him to a hospital."

Doctors say the teenager might have developed the tail in the womb as a result of a spinal deformity, but that it appeared outside only after he grew up.
"When the size of the tail grew... [it] began to press on the boy's back," said surgeon, Dr Pramod Giri.
"It was cosmetically and psychologically disturbing for him."

Although surgically removing a tail isn't a very complicated procedure, it must be carried out by a neurosurgeon as the growth of tail involves a part of the spinal cord.
It normally develops when the end of the spine is flattened in some way.

The teenager will be kept in hospital for a few days and then allowed back home - without his tail.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/artic...n-india-has-a-20cm-tail-removed-from-his-back
 
Interesting little news article I stumbled upon today:

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2016/10/mysterious_illness_that_can_ca.html

Mysterious illness that can cause hallucinations hits Coos Bay

Fentanyl patches are suspected in a mysterious illness in Coos Bay. (The Associated Press)

Lynne Terry | The Oregonian/OregonLive By Lynne Terry | The Oregonian/OregonLive

on October 12, 2016 at 2:36 PM, updated October 12, 2016 at 3:55 PM


A mysterious illness that can cause hallucinations has struck Coos Bay.

It all started Tuesday afternoon when a caregiver who works with a 78-year-old woman called 911. She reported that seven or eight people were trying to take the roof off her vehicle.

A deputy who showed up found nothing amiss, said Sgt. Patrick Downing, spokesman for the Coos Bay Sheriff's Office.

The caregiver, 52, called back early Wednesday, reporting the same thing. This time the deputy who responded figured something was wrong and arranged to have another deputy with a more suitable vehicle take the caregiver to Coos Bay Hospital on a mental health hold, Downing said.

Not long after the two deputies reported feeling nauseous, light-headed and euphoric. The elderly woman also came down with symptoms.

Everyone was hospitalized.

A haz-mat team checked the house but found nothing suspicious.

They figure it was the fentanyl, a powerful narcotic.

The 78-year-old woman uses fentanyl patches. Though all of the patches were accounted for, the deputies figured they still ended up being affected anyway, Downing said.

"They think they got exposed from handling and being in the same room with everybody," he said.

The deputies have been discharged from the hospital. They'll be assigned to desk duties for now. The caregiver is still hospitalized. Downing doesn't know whether the elderly woman is still hospitalized.

He's moved on to dealing with other strange incidents.

-- Lynne Terry

[email protected]
@LynnePDX
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The notion that someone on powerful medication could affect people around them reminds me of an odd incident from ten or more years ago.

I was in a city centre bar and was drawn into conversation by an older, white woman and her younger, black, male companion. The conversation - which I forget - was no stranger than many, though I was curious about their relationship. The question was answered when the woman went to the bathroom: he was her carer and she was a psychiatric patient. The only really odd thing was her insistence on giving me a big, wet kiss, when I got up to leave. Mind you, alcohol alone has that effect on some people!

I went on to meet a friend in another place. Despite having had only one drink, my head was swimming as I perched on the bar-stool. I ordered a soft drink, which was entirely out of character. The dizzy spell wore off quite quickly but it was entirely untypical. My friend speculated that someone had spiked my drink but it was very unlikely. My mind drifted back to the kiss and I wondered . . . :confused:
 
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Man cuts his own gangrene-ridden toes off with a pair of pliers
By JLewis_Herald | Posted: October 25, 2016

A man who had an operation cancelled at the last minute literally took matters into his own hands and amputated his toes - with a pair of pliers.
Desperate Paul Dibbins, 57, had been due to have his leg removed below the knee after suffering serious frost bite on his feet while repairing a car in freezing conditions.
But the surgery was called off by the NHS, so the fed up dad-of-three decided to tend the condition himself at home.

He spent months trying to heal his toes, but six months later a doctor told him he had killer gangrene and they would have to be removed.
Yet he claims he was then told he would have to wait six weeks for an operation, so Paul decided to cut off the troubled toes himself.

The former army Lance Corporal used some military training - and no painkillers - to cut off two toes on his right foot.
Paul claims he even won praise for his handy work from a surgeon - who said he was 'mad', but that his work was 'textbook'.

Paul, of Buckfastleigh, said: "Knowing that it would take at least another six weeks to get me in front of a surgeon again that's when I bit the bullet and cut off the toes.
"I did it because it's what had to be done, my doctor told me my toes were going to kill me.
"I've had one surgeon say to me it was more luck than judgment but then I had another surgeon saying I was mad but it was textbook."

Paul suffered frostbite after spending three hours fixing a blown head gasket to his son's car during "cutting winds" in the driveway of his hilltop home on March 16, 2015.
His feet were "soot black" and he was rushed into Torbay Hospital the same day, where doctors told him that because of complications with his diabetes they would need to amputate his right leg from the knee down.

But after being wheeled to theatre doctors pulled the plug at the last minute because of complications to another patient's surgery who had been seen before him.
Devastated Dibbins then discharged himself from hospital hours later and thought doctors would call him in a few days to re-book an appointment - but claims they never did.

Paul said: "They would have cut my leg off. When I went in, my doctor and two surgeons all said prepare yourself for the worst we are taking your leg.
"I had a breakdown, bearing in mind I'd had frostbite, I had been taken to hospital in an ambulance.
''I'd been told my leg would be cut off and I was taken into surgery but it was cancelled. I just wanted to go home and see my wife and kids.''

Paul then resorted to treating his own wounds over nine months, using a Swiss army knife, sterile scissors and homemade dressing, which he did twice a day.
He said: "Taking care of myself I could see myself getting better. I could see the more work i did the better it healed.
"I took six painkillers in the first week and then none for nine months. I didn't want to die and didn't want my leg cut off.

''What I have always wanted to do was live in the English countryside, it was all I wanted out of life and if I had lost my leg it would have been difficult to stay.''

Paul claims he saw doctors every six weeks afterwards and was told he could carry on treating his frostbite until 'things turned nasty'.
Paul's wife of 40 years Elaine, 57, said: "There have been ups and downs and it's been quite a journey.
"I could not be in the room while he did it but I knew that he had to do it to save his foot, his leg and life at the end of the day.
"I could see where he was coming from although it was traumatic and emotional.
"We have been together since we were 16 years ago and he has always been a survivor."

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/man...ir-of-pliers/story-29838672-detail/story.html

Warning! You may prefer not to view some of the photos if you're eating!
 
Yes, I'm a gaseous emissions specialist & indeed they can be ignited as witnessed by youtube.

I'm sceptical however that a laser could ignite one, you would need a naked flame. In all my years in the field I have never come across another case, & in my professional opinion it's more likely that something caught fire in the surgery, burning her legs, & the hospital is attempting to avoid paying compensation.
 
Just because it's never happened before doesn't mean it can't happen, but I suspect you're right, and the hospital want to put the incident down to an act of God, like a lightning strike. A very personal lightning strike.
 
GNC said:
Just because it's never happened before doesn't mean it can't happen, but I suspect you're right, and the hospital want to put the incident down to an act of God, like a lightning strike. A very personal lightning strike.
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Didn't this happen in an episode of 'House'?
 
hunck said:
Yes, I'm a gaseous emissions specialist & indeed they can be ignited as witnessed by youtube.

I'm sceptical however that a laser could ignite one, you would need a naked flame. In all my years in the field I have never come across another case, & in my professional opinion it's more likely that something caught fire in the surgery, burning her legs, & the hospital is attempting to avoid paying compensation.
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Possibly surgical spirit or something similar?
 
sherbetbizarre said:
The Independant
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'I thought I didn't have to eat, because I was dead': Soldier was left a 'walking corpse' after an 18th century medical condition convinced him he was a ZOMBIE
  • Married father-of-two Warren McKinlay began starving himself to death
  • Soldier from Essex, 35, he believed he was already dead and a 'ghost'
  • Cured after meeting a British soldier who also had Cotard's syndrome
  • Sufferers believe they are dead, or parts of their body no longer exist


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...condition-convinced-ZOMBIE.html#ixzz4RajrNaZ3
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
 
This sadly combines an R.I.P with a medical mystery and a bizarre case:
Limbless teen who lived in plastic bowl died on Christmas Day
Adam Boult
28 December 2016 • 8:09am

Rahma Haruna, a severely disabled Nigerian girl who became well known when photos of her appeared online earlier this year, has died at the age of 19.

The news was shared by local journalist Sani Maikatanga, whose photos were responsible for the wider world becoming aware of Rahma's plight.
Ms Maikatanga said in a social media post: "Rahma Haruna a 19 years old girl has pass away on Sunday 25th of December 2016 ... may Almighty grant her Jannatul Firdausi (paradise)."

Rahma, whose arms and legs stopped developing when she was six months old, lived with her family in the village of Lahadin Makole, close to Kano in Nigeria.
Practically immobile and in chronic pain, for many years she spent most of her waking hours in a plastic bowl, which her family transported her around in.
Her younger brother Fahad would take her into Kano each day to beg for handouts. However, last year a journalist, Ibrahim Jirgi, gave the family a wheelchair.

Earlier this year Rahma's mother Fadi told reporters: “From six months when she learnt how to sit that was when it began. She didn’t learn how to crawl.
“She started with a fever and that was it. Then stomach pains. Then her body parts like hands and legs. She cannot use any if the ache strikes.”

Fahad revealed he dedicated much of his life to helping his sister: “I help her in many ways," he said. "Bathing her is another thing I do, and taking her out every day.
"I feel happy whenever I see people helping her. I like taking to our relatives. She feels happy when we visit them.”

The Haruna family experienced an upturn in their fortunes when Ms Maikatanga's images of Rahma went viral on social media, prompting an inundation of requests from strangers who wanted to help in any way they could.

Despite her severe disability, Rahma held entrepreneurial ambitions, telling journalists she dreamt of starting a business. “A grocery store and anything people buy, that is what I want,” she said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/28/limbless-teen-lived-plastic-bowl-died-christmas-day/

(Photos on page.) What a heart-breaking story. :(
Let's hope her Jannatul Firdausi is a big grocery store in the sky now...
 
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