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How far can cameras go to make the personal into the public? Pretty far, considering how many news stories I’ve seen in the past year illustrated with x-rays, MRIs, and medical tomography. The idea of seeing inside the human body is strange enough, without seeing the weird things that can happen inside the body of someone on the other side of the world. Some of the images in this story may be disturbing to some people.
77-year-old Jin Guangying suffered from lifelong headaches when she was finally x-rayed at Shuyang Leniency Hospital in China. Doctors were stunned to find a bullet in her head! Jin remembered she had been shot during the Japanese invasion in 1943, but had only used herbal treatments for the wound at the time.
59-year-old Margaret Wegner had a brain scan in Berlin to find the source of her constant headaches. It was a pencil. She had tripped and embedded the pencil in her skull when she was four years old! The bigger part of the pencil was finally removed, but a smaller part was left, as delicate nerves had grown over the 2cm piece.
More curious cases, after the jump.
A duck with a broken wing in California was x-rayed and found to have an alien from outer space in its gut. The duck did not survive, and an autopsy found the alien was formed by grain in the bird’s digestive system. Still, the x-ray was sold via eBay auction to raise money for the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield, California. Note: this is the only patient in this story who is deceased.
31-year-old Luo Cuifen went to a hospital in China complaining of blood in her urine. X-rays showed that she had 26 needles embedded in her body, affecting her lungs, kidneys, brain, and other organs. Doctors believe the needles were inserted when Luo was an infant by grandparents who were disappointed that she was born a girl.
Then there was a curious case reported in The Lancet last summer of a middle-aged man whose braincase was almost completely filled with fluid. His actual brain was reduced 50 to 75% below normal size, but he held a civil servant’s job and was not considered mentally impaired or retarded. This scan shows his brain compared with a typical brain on the right.
Gavin Docherty was hit by a nail gun in a workplace accident. His co-worker immediately drove him to the hospital, but they were stopped by Canada’s finest on the way for speeding. After seeing nails sticking out of Docherty’s forehead, the officer allowed them to continue to the hospital, but followed them so he could issue the driver a $167 ticket for not wearing a seatbelt!
This one isn’t exactly an x-ray, but it’s a 3D medical image showing how a chair leg went through 19-year-old Shafique el-Fahkri’s head during a bar brawl. The Melbourne man survived the incident, and medical intervention saved his eyesight.
Although these images are quite sensational, what struck me about this series of stories was the public nature of these cases. All these were news stories I remembered from the past year or two; I didn’t have to search for any of them. Excluding the duck, all but one patient are identified by name, and all are from nations other than the US (with the possible exception of the unidentified patient). In the US, privacy laws allow medical images to be shared with medical personnel, insurance companies, lawyers, law enforcement, and others, but not the press. I don’t know what the laws governing such images are in other countries; maybe some of you do. Would you consider allowing pictures of the inside of your body to be published by a news outlet? Or does our concept of privacy only apply to our skin?
Comments (15)
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“Gavin Docherty was hit by nailgun in a workplace accident.”
I’d be anxious to hear how Mr. Docherty’s ‘accident’, consisting of no less than SIX nails in his skull and from various points of entry, was explained to authorities.
posted by Jerry on 9-25-2007 at 5:35 am
The last picture in this series reminds me of the story of Phineas Gage, who suffered from an iron bar being rammed through his skull during an accident in 1848.
He experienced a radical change of personality as a result. His case is a classic in neuropsychology.
posted by Daniel Kim on 9-25-2007 at 5:40 am
I found a few more articles about Gavin Docherty and it seems he was hit with only one nail to the forehead. Still bad off, but not as bad as Isidro Mejia, the man in the photo with 6 nails. From the article: “His colleagues said Isidro was using a nailgun that has both manual and fully automatic settings. It appears he slipped and fired into his skull.”
posted by Chris on 9-25-2007 at 8:15 am
You forgot my favorite….the old drill-through-the-head from Truckee, Calif.
Can’t link to it, so just Google the phrase truckee drill head. Other than the chair leg, it’s got these beat.
posted by Griner on 9-25-2007 at 8:25 am
Yikes, Griner! That was Ron Hunt, in 2003. I found the x-ray here.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/drillbit.asp
posted by Miss Cellania on 9-25-2007 at 8:37 am
I’m and xray tech (at work now, actually). You would be surprised with the random things that people have in them. I’ve seen it all…use your imagination. Personally I would let my x-rays be on tv, provided that it was an amazing story, and not some sort of icky “freak flashlight accident.”
posted by Radtech2000 on 9-26-2007 at 7:47 pm
Even more interesting is that the lad with the chair through his skull had forgiven his attacker.
posted by Ikono No on 9-26-2007 at 8:27 pm
I GUESS THE ONE DUDE GOT NAILED FOR GOOFING OFF
posted by SCHMUCKELPUTZ on 9-28-2007 at 10:43 am
You know, if I was one of these guys, I would allow myself to be displayed on TV. Why not? What a great story that would be to tell people. “Did you see that news item about the gal with a pencil up her nose? Yeah, that was me.”
posted by Chris Jones on 9-28-2007 at 10:45 am
Look at the clown doctors found in my head: www (.) peter-eich.com/ct/
posted by Bodenseepeter on 9-28-2007 at 11:05 am
I’m more interested in the empty headed beurocrat. Maybe they’re all like that. Would explain a hell of a lot.
posted by eddie on 2-8-2009 at 12:32 pm
Regarding Phineas Gage, there was another case study in neuropsychology that ultimately led to identifying the function of the corpus callosum. An iron rod went through a man’s head severing the CC, and while he could still recognize and differentiate colors, taste, and smell, he could not name them or label them. This was because the left and right portions of the brain were disconnected, so senses detected by the right brain were not being identified by the left brain.
Or something like that. I can’t find the case study online.
posted by Joel on 2-26-2009 at 9:40 am
Joel, there have been quite a few studies on severed corpus callosums, since separating the two brain hemispheres is (or once was) a last-ditch treatment for people with uncontrolled seizures. It works, but leaves behind some weird artifacts.
posted by Miss Cellania on 2-26-2009 at 9:51 am
You do raise a very good point about privacy laws regarding the release of medical information in the United States as opposed to the rest of the world. Sadly some of the people who posted responses to this post, like Chris Jones, seem to think that it would be “way cool” to have x-rays/ct-scans of their bodies posted for the entire world to see, but that seems ot be par for the course for the Gen X-Gen Y self centered “it’s all about ME crowd.
I suspect they would feel quite differently if the pictures posted were the result of objects becoming stuck in their rectums.
posted by Ben on 2-26-2009 at 11:24 am
skeletons are constantly smiling.
posted by Michael on 2-26-2009 at 11:49 am