In 1636, King Ludwig of Bavaria sentenced the nobleman Diez von Schaunburg and his landsknechts to death for daring to rise up. Before his execution, according to chivalric tradition, Ludwig of Bavaria asked von Schaunburg what his last wish would be. Dietz's answer surprised those present. He asked the king to pardon the sentenced landsknechts if he ran past them after his own execution.
Moreover, so that the king does not suspect any trick, von Schaunburg clarified that the condemned, including himself, will stand in a row at a distance of eight steps from each other, and only those who can run past, having lost their heads, are subject to pardon … The monarch graciously promised to fulfill the wish of the doomed.
Diez immediately placed the landsknechts in a row, carefully measuring the agreed distance between them in large strides, walked back to the prescribed distance himself, knelt down and crossed himself. The executioner's sword whistled, von Schaunburg's blond head rolled off his shoulders, and the body jumped to its feet and, in front of the king and courtiers, numb with horror, rushed swiftly past the Landsknechts. Having passed the latter, that is, having taken more than 32 steps, it stopped, jerked convulsively and fell to the ground. So this story is set out in the annals. And although in those days they liked to embellish, state documents indirectly confirm the content of the chronicle. Dumbfounded, the king decided that it was not without the devil, but he kept his word - the landsknechts were pardoned.
Another similar case is reported in the report of Corporal Robert Crickeshaw, found in the archives of the British War Office. It sets out the downright fantastic circumstances of the death of the commander of Company B of the 1st Yorkshire Regiment of the Line Captain Terence Mulveny during the British conquest of India in the early 19th century. This happened during the hand-to-hand combat during the assault on Fort Amara. The captain blew off the head of a Pathan soldier with his saber. But the decapitated body did not fall to the ground, but threw up the rifle, shot the English officer in the heart at close range, and only after that fell.
And here is the evidence of a later time. The 1888 New York Medical Gazette describes a unique case of a sailor who was caught, as in a huge vice, between the lower tier of the bridge arch and the superstructure of the ship. As a result, the sharpened edge of the bridge beam cut off the top of the skull, removing one-fourth of the head.
Doctors treating the victim a few hours after the accident found that the cut was clean, as if it had been done with a medical saw. The doctors had been working for over an hour, trying to close the gaping wound, when suddenly the sailor opened his eyes and asked what had happened.
When they bandaged him, he sat up. Before the amazed doctors had time to wash their hands, the victim got to his feet and began to dress. Two months later, the sailor returned to work. He occasionally experienced a slight dizziness, but otherwise felt like a completely healthy person. After 26 years, this sailor's gait became somewhat uneven, and then his left arm and leg were partially paralyzed. And when the former sailor was again admitted to the hospital 30 years after the accident, a note was made upon discharge that the patient had a tendency to hysteria.
Remained in the annals of medicine and a description of the remarkable case when at the end of the XIX century in the United States, during subversive work, twenty-five-year-old worker Phineas Gage was the victim of an accident. During the explosion of a dynamite stick, more than a meter long metal rod three centimeters thick pierced the unfortunate man's cheek, knocked out a molar, pierced the brain and skull, after which, after flying a few more meters, fell. The most amazing thing is that Gage was not killed on the spot and was not even so badly injured: he only lost an eye and a tooth. Soon his health was almost completely recovered, and he retained his mental abilities, memory, speech and control over his own body. True, his psyche after this incident changed somewhat. He became irritable and quick-tempered, soon quit his job and for the next fifteen years did nothing butthat he went to fairs and showed his broken head for money.
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In 1935, a child was born at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York with no brain at all. And yet for 27 days, contrary to all medical canons, the child lived, ate and cried, like all newborns. The child's behavior was completely normal, and no one suspected his lack of a brain until the autopsy.
In 1957, American psychologists heard a report from doctors Ian Bruel and George Albee about a successful operation, during which the patient had to remove the entire right half of the brain. The patient turned 39 years old, the level of his intellectual development was above average. To the great amazement of the doctors, he quickly recovered and did not lose his mental faculties.
Dr. Augustin Iturrica and Dr. Nicolas Ortiz spent a long time examining the medical history of a 14-year-old boy in 1940. The boy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was conscious and sane until his death, only complaining of a severe headache. When the doctors performed an autopsy, their amazement knew no bounds: the brain mass was almost completely absorbed by the abscess.
An even more mysterious incident occurred in Iceland. During the autopsy of the suddenly deceased 30-year-old man, who was fully conscious until his death, the pathologist did not find a brain at all. Instead, there was … 300 grams of water in the skull.
The Second World War added many more facts to this treasury of amazing cases. So the writer Vasily Satunki gives such a case. During a raid to the rear of the Germans, a lieutenant in command of a reconnaissance group stepped on a jumping frog mine. Such mines had a special expelling charge, which at first threw it up a meter and a half and only after that an explosion occurred. So it happened that time. An explosion crashed, fragments flew in all directions. One of them completely blew off the lieutenant's head. But the headless commander continued to stand on his feet.
He unbuttoned the padded jacket, pulled out a map with the route of movement from his bosom and gave it to the foreman, as if transferring command of the group. And only after that the decapitated lieutenant fell dead.
A similar incident happened immediately after the war in the forest near Peterhof. The mushroom picker found some kind of explosive device. He wanted to examine the little thing and brought it to his face. An explosion burst. The head was blown off completely, but the mushroom picker walked 200 meters without it. And to top it all off, the man walked three meters along a narrow board across the stream, keeping his balance, and only after that he died!
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