What is more horrific than discovering a thing lurking freely inside your body? I guess nothing! There are many cases of shocking discoveries made inside the human bodies. Next time if you have an innocent stomach ache, these revelation will make you think twice against its innocence. Here are ten people who discovered shocking things growing or living inside them.
#10- Rosemary Alvarez
Brain Tumours have a reputation of being very lethal malady because ultimately it’s all about the brain and what goes to the brain, becomes very difficult to remove so it gets bad as it gets. When Rosemary Alvarez went to a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona complaining of balance problem, numbness and difficulty in swallowing, she was admitted there and then for a surgery.
The doctors were confident that she had a brain tumour. However when the doctors opened up her head they did not find a tumour but something which is supposed to be in the intestines; a Tapeworm. She would have acquired it while ingesting food tainted with tapeworm larvae. Tapeworms usually hook on to the human intestines to suck all the nutrients and food but this one took a detour and went to Rosemary’s brain instead. It was indeed an astounding discovery for the doctors. What happened was that when she swallowed the food infected with tapeworm eggs, the eggs got carried away with the blood stream including her brain. One should not underestimate the power of tapeworms!
#9- Daryoush Mazarei
The time after surgery might be difficult but it was a lot more for the 76 year old Daryoush Mazarei. After he had a shunt installed to drain fluid from his brain at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, his life became difficult than ever as he felt excruciating pain like someone stabbing him from the inside. His doctors ignored his cries and assured him that it is all in his head due to the surgery and perhaps he should get a psychological check-up.
The poor man suffered for an entire month after which he was given a CT scan. The doctors were horrified to see a ten-inch metallic device inside his abdominal area which was left inside him during the surgery. The device is known as a retractor which is like a huge pair of tweezers used to hold back organs and skin during a surgery. Kind of a huge instrument to loose inside a man isn’t it? And we thought it was just a third world country problem. The hospital however avoided court trials and having been sued by him so they settled the issue with Mazarei on an undisclosed sum.
Surgeons leaving behind instruments during the surgery is a shockingly common issue. Health care safety group of the joint commission conducted a survey between 2005 and 2012 looking at how many surgical instruments were left behind after the surgery during this time span. A reported 772 instruments were left behind ‘accidently’, and sadly out of those 800 people, 16 could not survive the experience.
#8- Sanju Bhagat
When people put on some extra weight, they also prepare some excuses such as it’s just my hormones, it is baby fat or it is water weight etcetera etcetera. The Indian man from Nagpur named as Sanju bhagat had a pretty legitimate excuse for his extra swollen stomach. During his childhood he was often mocked because of his distended stomach which made him look like he was pregnant. After years of suffering the physical and mental torture, he went to the hospital complaining of the pain and difficulty in breathing. The doctors thought that the tumour might be pressing on to his diaphragm and decided to operate him immediately.
The plot twist in the story was that mister Bhagat was actually pregnant! No he didn’t conceive the child, the lump of flesh and bones was actually his twin brother. It’s an extremely rare medical condition known as Fetus Fetu in which a fetus gets trapped inside its twin. There are fewer than ninety known cases of such occurrence in the world. As for the patient, he was relieved to be free from the ordeal and declined to even have a glimpse of his removed twin, or what had become of it.
#7- Jessica Greaney
While she was a teen, Jessica Greaney woke up one morning thinking that she was having an infected left eye which was swollen and sore whilst her eyelid kept drooping. By the end of the week, her symptoms worsened with her red eye bulging out of her eye socket. Greaney described it as a huge red golf ball and one can hardly disagree with her.
She was taken to the hospital where the doctors found a parasite living in her eyeball. The parasite is called Acanthamoeba Castellani and is capable of surviving through harsh environment. It was revealed that the parasite was probably in the tap water which got splashed in her eyes and was pressed through her contact lenses. The parasite wasn’t very friendly and it began to consume up her cornea which the doctors had to stop immediately.
For an entire week, she was not allowed to sleep and had to administer the prescribed drops every few minutes. She didn’t know what was more of a torture, not being able to sleep or a parasite feasting on her eyeball. Thankfully, she has fully recovered now and keeps on spreading awareness among the people regarding the risks of wearing contact lenses. It might be a good time to switch to glasses!
#6- John Manley
Our parents guide a whole lot of us not to swallow our food without chewing properly nut in the case of John Manley, they might have to tell not to chew everything! When Manley began to experience disturbing symptoms such as cough, fatigue and several bouts along with pneumonia, he suffered for two years. One doctor even offered to remove his lung for him. Finally, the doctors at the Duke University decided to have a look inside his lung using a small camera and find out what was wrong with him.
The word wrong could be described as the one inch piece of plastic with writing on it. After when it was removed, the doctors examined it and found that it was a plastic utensil from the Wendy’s fast food restaurant. Needless to say, everyone including Manley was baffled to learn about it. He admitted that he likes to take huge chunks of food inside him as he eats and never realized that he swallowed a plastic piece which ended up in his lungs. It must be quite a sight watching this man eat. (cbsnews)
#5- Haley Lents
Some children struggle with the concept of edible and non edible. Same was the case when Jason Lents brought his daughter who was experiencing stomach aches so severe that she was barely able to move. His daughter needed an emergency surgery because she had swallowed magnets. The thing which makes it even more scary is that she didn’t just swallow one, but a whooping thirty of them!
No one knew why she went on that magnet swallowing spree as magnets are totally tasteless. She later claimed that the magnet looked like “Candy” to her. I don’t know what kind of candies was she having before but this doesn’t makes sense. The magnets were from a toy called Magnetix which is manufactured with other mega brands. You can mistake one or two for candies but not thirty! By the way this was also the logic given by the magnet company in their defense which seems quite convincing. (foxnews)
#4- Margaret Daalman
You might get shocked at the little girl swallowing thirty magnets at a time or a man swallowing a piece of plastic until you hear of an even stranger case of Margaret Dalman from Rotterdam, Holland. When she complained of the agonizing pain in her stomach, the doctors had an x-ray done on her. Her x-ray looked like a ghost wearing a feathered frock or a shuttlecock.
This little girl managed to swallow 78 pieces of Cutlery! She admitted that she had a craving for the silverware and she could not restrain herself. Imagine sitting down to eat food when one of the girl ignores the food and starts eating the utensils instead. Kind of creepy. Each of the spoon and fork she had gulped down had to be painstakingly removed by a skilled surgeon. Thanks to her she didn’t swallow any knives although it’s hard to tell why. Dalman has physically recovered and is going through therapy. (foxnews)
#3- Radhika Mandloi
It is hard to tell if there is a child who has not tried to eat a delicious maggot. Children are notorious and prefer not to listen when it comes to their parents telling them not to put random things in mouth. Nevertheless, Radhika Mandloi from India had a pretty good excuse when she called out for her parents for an itchy ear. They initially weren’t overly concerned about her bawling in discomfort but eventually they took her to the hospital.
Inside her ear, the doctor found a Blowfly, also known as a Green bottle or a Cluster Fly. As if that wasn’t horrifying enough, the fly wasn’t alone, she had laid eggs inside her ear and was accompanied by 80 other maggots! The doctors reached it just in time before the maggots could start eating up the little girl’s brain. It took two operations and three hours of surgery to get rid of the maggots completely. Blowflies are attracted to dirty and unhygienic environment and unfortunately Radhika’s house was anything but hygienic. She went home fit and fine however. (dailymail)
#2- Ron Sveden
This resident from Massachusetts was having a hard time for about a month as he had shortness of breath and had to be rushed to the hospital eventually. When the doctors had an x-ray of his lung, they found a grainy spot. While Ron prepared himself for the news of cancer, the doctors revealed that his case was more of a classic and he just had a pea plant growing on his lung! One day while he was eating peas, one of it got lost and went straight to his lung which weirdly enough seemed like a favourable condition for it to split open and sprout. The seed had germinated due to the warm and moist conditions however it was removed by a surgery before it became a plant. If you happen to eat raw peas, it might be a right time to stop!
Svenden went through a major surgery but was very much relieved that it wasn’t cancer. He also said that his first post-surgery meal came in with a side of peas which he ate fearlessly. (BBC)
#1- Artyom Sidorkin
Russia and USA are always competitive with each other even when it comes to growing abnormal things inside you and there is no stop to it. A Russian man Artyom Sidorkin started to complain about chest pains and started to cough blood. Nothing unusual was revealed by the x-rays. Fearing the worst, the doctors confirmed a mass growing inside one of his lungs suspecting it to be cancer. They examined his lung tissue and found something so shocking that the doctors thought they were hallucinating. There it was, a plant which was growing inside his lung just like his American competitor. He also had swallowed a seed which had clung to his lung and had begun to grow.Only this time the plant was a little bit than two inches long. Sidorkin was able to recover after having a successful surgery
