A woman sweating blood, magnets in her nose - such cases cannot be considered common and well-studied. However, reporting them can help doctors identify rare diseases and potentially harmful effects of procedures. Here are some unusual cases from medical practice in 2017.
Eaten metal
A 52-year-old French man has been admitted to the emergency room five times in five years with symptoms such as severe abdominal pain and vomiting of blood. Doctors operated on it four times to extract the bezoara, a form of indigestible material, in this case metal, from the stomach.
In one case, surgeons had to remove more than a hundred metal objects - nails, knives, paper clips and coins. The accumulation of these objects was so large that it did not allow the person's stomach to do its job normally.
The man was diagnosed with psychosis, which means that he cannot adequately assess his behavior. He recovered from surgery and was referred to mental health services for further treatment.
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Sweating blood
A 21-year-old girl from Italy went to the hospital with an unusual condition that caused blood to appear on her face and palms without any visible skin damage.
She was diagnosed with a rare disease - hematidrosis. Only 42 cases of this disease have been documented since 1880.
The reasons for sweating blood are not known for certain. Some researchers believe that increased blood pressure causes blood cells to leave the vessels and leak out through the sweat glands. Other scientists hold the theory that this condition may be associated with the activation of the instinctive mechanism "fight or flight", which in rare cases can cause capillary rupture.
Huge stone in the bladder
Bladder stones are mineral formations that range in size from microscopic to centimeter in diameter. But one man in California was found to have a disproportionately large stone - it was the size of an ostrich egg and weighed 770 grams!
About ten years ago, this man required surgery to remove his bladder as a treatment for bladder cancer. During this operation, surgeons created from fragments of his intestine the so-called "neocystis", a new bladder. This artificially created organ acts as a bladder, but increases the risk of stones.
Doctors performed an operation to remove a stone from the neocystis, and the man had no complications.
Nose magnets
Magnets can be dangerous toys for children. For example, an 11-year-old boy in Cyprus, playing with magnetic buttons, placed two flat and round objects in his nose, where they began to attract each other, damaging the nasal septum.
The boy had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance due to bleeding and severe pain in the nose. He required surgery to remove the magnets and heal the damaged area. When the boy came for examination six months later, his nose was in perfect order.
Man with a bullet in his eye socket
When the 45-year-old man was shot, a pistol bullet pierced the wooden door and hit the man in the eye socket, without damaging his eyes or skull.
The man arrived at the emergency room with severe pain. Doctors diagnosed a wound in the corner of his eye and damage to his tear ducts. During the operation, the bullet was removed and the lacrimal ducts were repaired. Subsequently, the pain in the eye decreased, and the man's vision did not suffer.
Torn off scalp restored to woman
In a terrible accident, a woman lost her scalp due to the fact that her hair was caught in a rotating mechanism. Her skin was ripped from her nose almost to her neck. The top of her ears were also damaged.
However, her scalp was immediately placed in an ice pack, allowing surgeons to restore it. A year after the operation, the woman has hair on her head, and she can open and close her eyes again. The woman says she has no problems in her daily life after the accident.
One eye, 27 contact lenses
A 67-year-old woman was undergoing cataract surgery when her doctors noticed a bluish foreign object under her upper eyelid. This object was a cluster of seventeen contact lenses, and then doctors discovered ten more lenses in the same eye.
The woman told the doctors that she felt discomfort in this eye, but thought it was due to her age. The operation had to be postponed because bacteria could appear in so many contact lenses.
Ethical controversy tattoo
In Florida, having a tattoo on a man's body sparked ethical controversy among his doctors. The man, who was admitted to the hospital unconscious, had a "Do not reanimate" tattoo on his chest.
Doctors faced a difficult choice: should they follow the instructions of the tattoo without an official statement “not to reanimate”, or should they ignore it and save the man, even if this tattoo reflects his real desire?
Medical ethics experts told doctors to respect the tattooed inscription, as it was reasonable to assume that the tattoo "expresses a conscious preference."
Later, the hospital found that the man did indeed have a statement of refusal to resuscitate. The man's condition soon worsened, and he died without receiving emergency help, as he himself desired.
Ilya Kislov