From a brain-eating amoeba infection caused by sinus rinsing to a rare fungal infection from a rose-killing fungus, this article highlights some of the weirdest medical cases of 2023. Other cases include a bacterial infection from a wild iguana bite, a man experiencing restored color vision after taking psilocybin-containing mushrooms, and a woman infested with a roundworm in her brain. Additionally, it covers a teenager's tragic death after eating an extremely spicy chip, a case of recurrent diarrhea caused by a cat, a spider found in a woman's ear, incidents involving firearms in MRI rooms, and a man who tore his windpipe by trying to hold in a sneeze.
Nearly 300,000 American adults visit the emergency room each year due to having foreign objects in their bodies, making it the ninth leading cause of unintentional injuries requiring hospitalization. The incidents include objects such as plastic swords, magnets, steak knives, and video-game controllers found in various body parts. Men with objects stuck in their penises and women seeking medical help for objects in their vaginas were also reported. Additionally, a study revealed that almost 4,000 people are hospitalized annually due to foreign objects in their rectums. The average cost of treating these incidents is $5,000. Accidental falls remain the leading cause of unintentional, non-fatal injuries, followed by involuntary poisoning.
Surgeons and medical professionals share their scariest moments during operations, including operating on the wrong knee, accidentally ripping a patient's dural sac, nearly lacerating a major blood vessel, encountering severe tissue rotting, discovering a golf ball-sized blood clot in the heart, accidentally opening a major artery, dealing with ruptured bladders, administering anticoagulants without realizing it, and experiencing various surgical errors and complications.
