The emergency room is a testament to the unpredictability of life.
The people who end up there are often going about their business one moment, and then
caught up in a life-or-death situation the next.
Or they become sidelined by something less serious but totally unexpected.
Emergency room doctors and nurses can attest there is no shortage of patients who suffer
because of bizarre conditions and/or misguided decisions.
From extreme eating to painful encounters with nature, we present some of the strange
events that cause people to seek immediate medical attention, in this episode of The
Infographics Show, “10 Craziest ER Stories.”
10.
The Knife Swallowers
According to a Vice article, the Knife Swallowers are a group of mentally ill people who intentionally
swallow knives --sometimes seven or eight of them -- because they want to hurt themselves.
They go to the emergency room so often that the emergency staff know them well and get
frustrated treating them.
Sometimes the surgeons refuse to remove the knives from the Knife Swallowers “because
they’re just going to do it again.”
9.
Ninja Injuries
In April 2015, four armed burglars in Argentina ended up in the emergency room after their
victim, a homeowner named Dias Costa, fought back.
Despite having two pistols, the burglars were seriously injured after Costa surprised them
with a samurai sword and began “hacking pieces out of them” according to a Daily
Mail Online report.
The slashed burglars escaped with “the equivalent of 278 pounds” or about $370.37, but they
did not get very far.
The driver lost control of the getaway car because of heavy blood loss and crashed into
a stationary car “forcing all four to go to [the] hospital for emergency treatment.”
Three of the burglars, two men and one woman, were arrested by police.
The fourth burglar managed to get away and hide but “was forced to come back to [the]
hospital the next day due to serious sword injuries.”
8.
Ghost Pepper Hole
In 2016, a hamburger topped with puree from the ghost pepper, one of the world’s hottest
chili peppers, turned into a recipe for disaster for a 47-year-old man in California.
He finished the burger as a participant in a ghost pepper eating contest, and it almost
finished him.
According to a Live Science article, the pepper puree caused him to vomit so much that he
tore a one-inch (2.5 cm) hole in his esophagus, and what he ate was leaking out from the hole
into the space around his left lung, which also collapsed.
Doctors performed emergency surgery on the man because a ruptured esophagus is almost
always fatal if left untreated.
They also re-inflated his collapsed left lung.
After the operation, it took him 23 days to recover in the hospital, and he had to eat
from a feeding tube until his esophagus fully healed.
7.
Regrettable Vegetable Play
Another food-related mishap occurred to a 40-year-old man, who according to a Sharenator
article, was trying to use some vegetables as sex toys with his wife.
Things got out of hand – a cucumber to be more specific.
It got stuck in his rectum, and he could not get it out.
The article states that he was given “some pain pills and KY jelly” and told that “he
would eventually poop it out.”
As he left the hospital, a nurse shouted, “‘Come on back this afternoon.
We’re having a Butt-luck supper!’”
6.
The Human Safe
In May 2017, UPI reported that a 28-year-old Colombian woman underwent two gastric operations
because she swallowed “between $7,000 and $9,000 in U.S. $100 bills” after arguing
about the money with her husband.
Doctors were able to retrieve $5,700 in “salvageable condition,” and she pooped out the rest.
Police held some of the money taken from the woman’s stomach while they determined if
she “was attempting to smuggle it illegally.”
5.
Drunk Without Drinking
According to a Brobible article, a 61-year-old Texas man arrived in an emergency room with
“a blood alcohol concentration of 0.37%, or five times the legal limit in the state
of Texas.”
He claimed that he had not been drinking.
This was a recurring problem, so he was placed in isolation for 24 hours for further study.
After giving the man carbohydrate-rich foods while in isolation, the hospital staff figured
out what was wrong with him.
He was not drinking alcohol but producing it in his own belly.
He was suffering from “’Gut Fermentation Syndrome,’” which turned him into a human
brewery.
A yeast buildup in his gut converted high-carbohydrate foods into ethanol that would enter the rest
of his body and get him drunk.
A combination of anti-fungal medication and a low-carb diet kept him sober.
4.
Please Don’t Blow
Sometimes emergency surgery is dangerous not only to the patient but also to the emergency
room staff.
In February 2018, a 44-year-old Texas man went to the emergency room with a fractured
thigh bone and a wound caused by a firework explosion.
But that was not all.
According to a Live Science article, the “potentially explosive part of a mortar-type firework”
was also embedded in his leg.
Precautions were taken at the hospital.
Business Insider reports that “Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technicians were called
in and the man was placed in a separate room to protect medical staff and other patients.”
The surgeons were advised to flush the wound with water “to drown the fuse” and avoid
“using electricity in the procedure because it could spark the firework.”
With the bomb squad technicians on standby, surgeons managed to remove the firework from
the man’s leg without blowing up themselves or anyone else.
They were also able to save the man’s leg “with the help of a metal rod insertion
and a skin graft.”
3.
Freaky Fertility Treatment
According to an Observer article, an old woman at an emergency room was “showing signs
of toxic shock syndrome.”
She was too old to need tampons, so what could be giving her these symptoms?
During an exam, the doctor discovered a turtle lodged inside the woman’s vagina!
When the doctor tried to remove the turtle, the old woman told her, “Put it back!”
What was even stranger than the woman’s response was her explanation about the turtle.
She was following the recommendation given to her by a “bad witch doctor”: “Put
a (now dead) turtle up there for a few days and she’d regain the ability to get pregnant.”
2.
Attack of the Flesh-Eating “Sea Bugs”
In August 2017, an Australian teenager named Sam Kanizay ended up in a Melbourne hospital
with profusely bleeding feet and lower legs.
The bleeding was coming from what a Denver Post article describes as “thousands of
tiny bites on the teen’s legs,” which appeared after Kanizay stood still in water
off Brighton Beach for about half an hour.
What bit the teen has not been clearly determined.
According to a Business Insider article, some marine biology experts thought the creatures
could be “’sea lice,’” which “refers to more than 500 species of parasites that
feed on fish,” while others thought they could be “’sea fleas,’” which are
“scavenging crustaceans” that are also known as “lysianassid amphipods.”
Fortunately, Kanizay was expected to recover from his bizarre attack.
1.
Emergency Eel Removal
In 2011, a man named Zhang Nan bathed with live eels at a Chinese spa thinking that they
would eat away the dead skin on his body and “make him look ten years younger” according
to one report.
Unfortunately, one eel did something more.
Nan felt a “severe pain” and realized to his horror that the eel had entered his
penis.
He recalls how he “’tried to hold it and take it out,’” but he was too late.
Nan rushed to the hospital with the eel inside him.
Doctors discovered that the eel had slithered its way into Nan’s bladder.
To use a bad pun, doctors fished out the six-inch eel during a three-hour operation.
Nan survived the ordeal, but the eel did not.
So, do you have any crazy ER stories that you would like to share?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called What Happens When You Pass Out!
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