The femur is widely considered the hardest or second hardest bone in the human body, but a 35-year-old man in China allegedly managed to break his just by coughing.
Doctors at the Second People’s Hospital of Fujian Province in China recently reported the shocking case of a 35-year-old man referred to only as Mr. Ye who suffered a fractured femur during a coughing fit. According to Dong Zhong, director of the Department of Orthopedics at the hospital, the unusual incident occurred during a coughing fit, which is unusual considering that men in Ye’s age range typically suffer femur fractures as a result of serious trauma, such as car accidents or falls from considerable height. Mr. Ye told doctors that he felt a sharp pain immediately after a particularly strong cough, but he simply brushed it off as a cramp. It was only after walking became difficult because of the pain that he decided to seek medical help.
