A Quebec man suffering from body integrity identity disorder (BIID) asked a doctor to remove the fourth and fifth fingers on his left hand because he felt they didn’t belong on his body.

Dr. Nadia Nadeau from the Department of Psychiatry at Université Laval recently published a case report about an unnamed patient who had been experiencing traumatizing thoughts that the last two fingers on his left hand didn’t belong on his body since childhood. Throughout his life, these thoughts caused him pain, constant irritability, impaired dexterity, and vivid nightmares that the two fingers were rotting or burning. Although the patient did not share his distress about his fingers with his family out of embarrassment, he often fantasized about having them removed himself.

Read More »

A California teen became the subject of a recent medical paper after getting a metal coin vertically stuck between his vocal cords like in a slot machine.

In a medical report published in this month’s New England Journal of Medicine, a team of doctors detailed the bizarre case of a 14-year-old boy who showed up at the emergency room of a hospital with a hoarse throat and swallowing difficulties. He told the staff that he had accidentally swallowed a quarter, but reported no difficulties breathing and no drooling. However, after performing an X-ray scan of his chest and neck, doctors immediately recognized the severity of the situation, as the metal coin had become stuck in a vertical position between his vocal cords and could damage them if left there for too long.

Read More »

Vietnamese doctors recently saved a young man’s life by removing a live 30-cm-long eel from his abdomen, where it had caused intestinal perforations.

On March 20, a 34-year-old man was admitted to the Hai Ha District Medical Center in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, with severe abdominal cramps. Since the patient was in too much pain to be questioned about his symptoms, the hospital staff conducted an X-ray and an ultrasound which revealed a foreign body in his abdomen, as well as intestinal perforation and peritonitis. Doctors decided that the best course of action was to conduct surgery, remove the suspicious object, and try to mitigate the damage to the man’s intestines. Upon opening up the patient’s abdomen, doctors were surprised to find that the foreign object was a 30 cm live eel.

Read More »