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Antifreeze, grapefruit, popcorn. Sounds like a weird grocery list, right? Well, not if you’re a pathologist.
These are just a few of the strange things medical professionals have discovered inside bodies during autopsies, as revealed in a viral Reddit thread.
Below, we’ve rounded up the most fascinating—and unsettling—cases they shared. Scroll down to read them, but just a heads-up: some are genuinely disturbing.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Not mine but a Doctor i used to work with. Back when he was in school, he would do his cadaver labs really late at night.(to many people during the day.) One time it was really late. Around 2am. He was listening to his lecture on his head phones and he saw the cadavers arm move/twitch. He thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Then he saw it again. Proceeded to run away in a panic.
He told a few of his classmates what happened but nobody believed him. Next day they had a group cadaver lab with the same cadaver. The arm twitched yet again. The professor did some digging and it turns out the patients pacemaker was still fully functional and occasionally fired, causing the arm twitch.
He was so relieved. He thought there was a zombie in there.
Bi.Felicia 6 days ago
Oh my goodness, that poor guy. I can only imagine how relieved he was to find out about the pacemaker.
RELATED:
#2
My friend had to do an autopsy on a baby. The dad claimed she died after rolling off a couch. My friend found that the kid was slammed against a hard surface multiple times. Dad eventually admitted he hit the baby against the wall after she wouldn’t stop crying.
My friend had to quit that job cause it was so taxing mentally.
#3
Assisted with a post-mortem when I was a student. Female patient died in her 40s. Her medical history had extensive complaints of abdominal pains, one Dr even referred to her as a "hypochondriac" and others commented on apparent anxiety. Opened her abdomen and she had extensive scar tissue, she was absolutely massacred inside from endometriosis. She suffered for decades and never got referred for a laparoscopy.
She didn't have f*****g anxiety, she had a medical condition.
EDIT: a few clarifications. Patient cause of death was unrelated. I won't give any details because it may get too identifying. I am UK based and this was an NHS post mortem. Patient did not have diagnosed anxiety. Drs referred to her anxiety only in relation to her abdominal pain complaints, no other known history.
Thank you for sharing your stories with me and others. I will take the time to read every one.
#4
My mom loves this story:
My aunt got accepted into nursing school, but had to get prerequisites done in the summer. She knew someone who pulled some strings, and she was put into a pre-med class that taught pretty much the same thing as one of her nursing classes. She was the only woman, and because she has always looked younger than she is (and she was only 20 to begin with), and she’s really pretty, all the pre-med students groaned and complained that she would keep hold the class back.
Anyway, time came for the cadaver lab. The decedent had been in a car accident. The lab director and professor kept telling them that they weren’t looking for a cause of death—it had already been determined—they were just looking at the anatomy.
My aunt was looking over the x-rays and asked, “what were the circumstances of the accident” (my grandpa was a fire fighter/paramedic, so she knew that was a huge thing). The professor is like “We’re not looking for the cause of death. We told you, it was trauma from a car accident.” My aunt responds, “There’s a small spot on his kidney right here on the x-ray”.
They went and checked the kidney, and sure enough, there was a tiny tumor in his kidney. Based on the size and placement, it was determined that the tumor would have caused excruciating pain similar to a kidney stone—based on that information and the nature of the car accident, they said the man either blacked out from the pain while driving, or had a sharp, sudden pain that caused him to lose control of the vehicle.
They had to change the death certificate to add that to the contributory causes.
And my aunt also set the curve for the class.
And, two years later, she passed the boards with the top score. While in labor. My cousin was literally born 3-4 hours after my aunt pretty much aced the boards.
***My mom just informed me she merely passed the boards. My mistake.
I’m glad the pre-med students didn’t hold her back.
Bi.Felicia 5 days ago
Imho, the aunt did ace the boards exam, considering she was apparently in active labor while taking it and was still able to pass. She's lucky she was able to make it to the hospital in time for baby to arrive. Most board exams or similar licensure exams are held at specific testing centers, that are proctored,timed and secured. I'm surprised that she was able to hide the fact that she was in active labor, especially if her water broke.
#5
I may be late to the party but I finally have a good story to tell!
In medical school, my group’s cadaver was an 80+ year old female who was EXTREMELY unfit. Morbidly obese with muscles half the size of any other cadavers. Her pectoral muscles were paper thin, to get some reference. We figured she was bedridden during her last few months, which would somewhat explain these findings.
When we started our neurology unit and began to dissect the infratemporal fossa, I discovered a small metal pellet under the skin behind her right ear. My tank mates and I went on to find dozens of these metal pellets strewn around her head’s anatomy, with some lodged into the cranium and others in the bones of her face.
We contacted her living relatives to get some clarification and they ended up revealing that when this lady and her brother were children (they said she was 8 years old) they were playing with an old decorative rifle that the family had mounted above the fireplace. Long story short, the brother accidentally discharged the rifle into the girl’s face :(
The aftermath was this lady was blind and wheelchair bound for the rest of her life, and the pellets weren’t all removed. It was an interested dissection with that information from then on, but a sobering moment in reminding our class that our cadavers are humans with their own struggles and rich lives. If you’re considering donating your body to science, please know that we don’t take the responsibility lightly and a million thanks aren’t enough.
I have more stories if anyone is curious!
Edit: I should add that her granddaughter made a point of saying this lady did not hold a grudge on her brother, and they lived full lives on happy terms :).
#6
Training in the Medical Examiners office. Elderly woman found dead by herself in her home. There was nothing suspicious so I was given the case. Took out all the organs, dissected everything, completely unremarkable. I cut through the larynx as the last step before I could clean up and finish the case and boom, giant piece of chicken lodged in her windpipe. Died choking on dinner.
#7
My wife is a pathologist assistant and during her schooling carried out the autopsy of a newborn that died minutes after birth. The mother was desperate for a child and had a history of multiple miscarriages at different terms. This was her first time making it full term and all prenatal checkups revealed no problems. The delivery was difficult, but successful, and baby was alive for a short time. Skip to autopsy. All signs point to baby being fully developed. Get to the abdominal cavity and the liver is lacerated and hemorrhage everywhere. During the difficult delivery the resident used too much force with the forceps to pull the baby out. The ruptured liver the caused the baby to bleed out internally.
Wife was enthusiastic about autopsy up to this point, now has no interest.
#8
When my parents were in medical school they attended an autopsy of a patient who had died in a car accident
Autopsy revealed that apparently this guy had survived a chest shot in Vietnam years ago that the surgeons/medics left in rather than perform risky surgery, the accident had migrated the bullet to his heart and was ruled the cause of death.
#9
Forensic pathologist here. Two come to mind:
-I had just moved back to my home state where family lives. Get a case with a man with a distinctive last name in the family tree. I put a text out to my mom to see if we were related, but before she texted back I pulled the sheet back and already knew; he looked like me. It was my great uncle.
-Get a case where it's a "house fire" death. On exam he's got multiple, textbook stab & incised wounds. I spend the next 30 minutes getting ~~gaslighted~~ quizzed by PD about "Are you *sure*?" because they thought this was a straightforward house fire. Un-fun fact: fires not an uncommon way for people to try to conceal a homicide.
Thee8thsense 6 days ago (edited)
Only attempt to conceal a homicide, but truth is revealed if the investigators know what they are doing.
#10
I did the autopsy of both a robber and his victim. The robber shot the victim in the back when he tried to escape in a motorcycle, and the robber was shot by the police in the exact same situation.
What's interesting is that they both died by exactly the same lesion. Both of them had their 4th lumbar vertebra shattered and their aorta (main artery of the body) sectioned at the same level. I thought of it like an extreme example of instant karma.
#11
My dad used to perform autopsies.
His best story was that they were brought a body that has no real indication of any issues. After examining the body, the only thing of note was that there was blood coming out of the guys r****m. They begin the autopsy and the guys organs are completely liquidified and the body cavity is filled with lead shot. It became apparent really quickly that someone had shoved a shotgun up his a*s and pulled the trigger.
This was in the 70’s and I still have to wonder what this guy did to p**s someone off enough to get a shotgun up his a*s.
#12
Former homicide detective here. Suspicious death, 30-ish male found alone by cleaning staff in the back row of a sparsely attended sci-fi movie. Strange scratching wounds around/in mouth. Some petechiae in eyes and on cheeks, but no signs of strangulation. No obvious signs of chronic illness or disease. Presented as healthy, normal adult male. Found on his person was a wallet with normal contents, and a single cancelled movie ticket, indicating he went alone. Weird, spy movie s**t going on here.
Autopsy: a large amount of popcorn compacted in his esophagus. Like a half cup. Dude was apparently excited by the movie, stuffing popcorn in his mouth, and choked. The scratch marks around/in his mouth were self inflicted, trying to dig out popcorn (verified via fingernail scrapings, his was only DNA present). Loud movie, he was in the back, no one saw or heard him choke.
I’ve never eaten popcorn again.
#13
I was an investigator for a state medical examiner for just over 2 years. Had a mom that had “drank herself to death” according to the husband after relapsing on Mother’s Day weekend. I just felt like something was off. Sent her for an autopsy. Had a ruptured liver where dude had essentially beat her till she internally bled to death.
Later, while out on bail, he stole a semi truck, crashed it in a pond, got out shooting at a deputy, and they killed him.. saved the tax payers a good chunk of money.
#14
Working in the ER, young man comes in, one of four in a nasty auto accident. Speed+inexperience=car flipped, passengers ejected. One expired shortly after coming into the ER.
I transported the body down to the morgue. First time I had felt a human being with all their bones broken. Felt like trying to lift sheets full of rolling bowling balls.
Once in the morgue I commented how unscathed he looked; he really did.... some dirt, the ET tube, not much else. ME offered I could view the autopsy if interested.
I was interested.
The first thing they noted were the xrays of the fractures, basically all the major bones including multiple multiple rib fractures. When they opened the body the organs were described as near liquified.
It wasn’t until weeks later I got the whole story from the EMT who had been on scene. Seems the passenger had been 1/2 in 1/2 out the window while the car had been flipping. He was just days shy of 17. The driver was just days past 16, his parents had bought him a brand new car, he’d had it less than 72hrs. Driver lived, though with severe brain damage, front and rear passengers died, rear drivers side passenger survived with not too much permanent (physical) damage.
I have friends who’s kids are getting their drivers license. I never pass up a chance to drop that story on them. I’ve seen a lot of f’d up things in my healthcare career. That is one of the grand total of 3 that make me tear up, and it’s one from early on.
Norm Gilmore 6 days ago (edited)
I'd put money on it that the unscathed survivor had been wearing their seat belt. https://www.aa.co.nz/about/aa-research-foundation/programmes/seatbelt-use/
#15
Not a doctor, but my family requested an autopsy of my grandfather so we could (hopefully) get some answers about how he died. Our family has a history of unusual medical conditions (shout-out to my ancestors who were MASSIVELY inbred until a hundred or so years ago), so we wanted to see what made him so sick leading up to his death.
We never got a clear answer, unfortunately, but we did get an AMAZING summary of their findings. In the autopsy report, they listed all of my grandfather’s body parts. Now, Papa was a large man. It stands to reason that his body parts would be a bit larger than the average guy.
The list of body parts went something along the lines of “heart - above average, liver - above average, brain - above average” all the way down to “testicles - average.”
I’ve never laughed harder at average-sized testicles.
#16
I’m a veterinarian and sometimes I do necropsy (basically autopsy for animals) and one of the more notable case involved a prized Wagyu cow that died mysteriously. Wagyu cows are very expensive to rear and fetch a good price at the slaughterhouse.
After cutting her open, I found metal wires extending from her stomach into her heart. It’s what we call ‘hardware disease’. Apparently the cow decided that eating metal wires for constructing fences was a good idea.
Normally the farmhands are quite good at keeping these hazards away from the inquisitive bovines but I guess slip up do happen from time to time.
geezeronthehill 6 days ago
Cow magnets are used internally to gather up ingested iron and steel into an artificial gastrolith, but a longer wire would be deadly.
#17
Masters in forensic pathology here. You'd be surprised to know the number of people that have life threatening issues that never went diagnosed and that they didn't die from. Seen an older guy who died of pneumonia in hospital. On autopsy the guy had both an elarged heart and a couple of medium sized aneurysms in the brain. Another guy in his ~70s apparently came into the ER and had chest pain then died shortly after. Dies of a heart attack but also had cancer.
In less natural circumstances though...saw a guy who had been shot in the head a couple of times. Three definite entries and a blown out skull but police only found one bullet. Couldn't find the other bullet in his head at all. Assumed the police missed it.
Went on as normal with the autopsy until we got to the chest cavity. The other bullet was just chilling beside his lung. Turns out it entered the skull, hit the inside, ricocheted down his neck and into the chest. That was pretty wild.
Kim Steffen 5 days ago
Once inside the skull, a. 22 round doesn't have enough power to exit the skull, so it bounces around inside, scrambling the brain.
#18
While in medical school: We had to observe an autopsy and could assist. One of the lectures was to observe for head trauma. You do this by hitting the skull with a hard object (scissor or the like). A hollow sound is normal but a "dull" sound indicates trauma.
One of the other students did this exam and found a "dull" sound. The coroner had not yet himself examined the person and was very surprised, as he had not been informed by the police of head trauma.
They then continued to examine the head and they found a gun shot wound through the skull. All of a sudden the person was a "crime scene" and they had to call the police again and leave the person as untouched as possible.
I believe it was later confirmed that the person had shot himself, but it could have been a m****r.
Edit: this blew up! Thanks for all the upvotes. As someone pointed out there must have been some information that was missed between the police and coroner. I myself was not present , but I do believe the story is true, as it is now a lecture in why you should always examine for skull trauma and not just assume something before knowing.
Also edit: there seem to be a lot of interest so I have added another story which is unfortunately true, but crazy.
#19
I took forensic lectures so I saw quite a bit of crazy s**t, but the things that stick is an autopsy revealing a history of abuse, pain and violence.
A little more 'funny': a skeletton was found in the near mountains, it was very clear he died in an accident 20+ years ago, however he had to be identified via DNA. Turned out his dad was not his dad, but his uncle. Sparked a whole public family drama show, cause the family was well known in my area.
#20
Sheep farmer, I have to know how to do a necropsy for when something dies to know if it's something that could spread. Had a ewe fall over dead after losing a ton of weight and after treating her for everything under the sun. She would gasp for air and struggled to breathe but antibiotics, steroids and anti-inflammatory d***s didn't touch it. She finally passed away and I cut her open to see what the hell happened fully expecting to see her lungs riddled with s**t.
Her heart was 5 times the normal size and hard as a river stone. My guess is she'd had that issue her whole life and it didn't k**l her until she was 2.
#21
My friend once cremated a lady and when they pulled the table out there were 3 sets of forceps sitting there.
Most likely she died in surgery but I always thought it was crazy those were left in and whatever metal they're made of clearly has a higher melting point than cremation temps.
#22
This story circulates every year at my medical school.
A body came in with a gunshot wound to the chest. There was no exit wound. They tried to locate the bullet during the autopsy. No success. They then did a whole scan (X-ray or CT) of the upper chest/abdomen/pelvis. No bullet.At that point someone said f**k it lets scan the whole body.
Lo and behold the bullet was detected in the popliteal fossa (area behind the knee). It had embolized/traveled from the heart all the way down the arterial system to the knee where it got stuck in one of the narrower blood vessels.
#23
Not a doctor but recently I was reading about Hiroshima/Nagasaki and one person’s perspective. When their family member who experienced the disaster died many years later, they were cremated and left in their ashes were tiny pieces of broken glass and metal from the initial explosions.
#24
Medical student here and this story is from anatomy class. One of the cadavers in our class died of cancer and when we took out the gentleman’s liver it was very large and full of bumps all over. The liver itself was also hard as a rock. The poor mans cancer had spread all over his liver and was full of tumours. It really hit home that this was what cancer was like and demonstrated it’s pure destructive nature.
DaisyBee 6 days ago
It truly is insidious! My uncle is suffering from a brain tumor at the minute and he’s lost complete control of his right side - his leg and hand have essentially curled up and cannot function. All because of a tiny bump in his brain (can’t recall the size but it’s not large). An absolutely crazy disease.
#25
Oh my God this just reminded me
I'm a vet student and we have a pathology class where we do autopsies on dead animals (most of them submitted by local farms to see if there's something that may be contagious, or to see if the death was a result of the way of living, some owners wanting to know what happened to their pets, etc). At first it's kind of disturbing but after a few autopsies you get used to it. So anyway, during class one of the technicians brings in a big box, and you can hear chirps from the inside. Our professor was still focused on the first autopsy of a dog, but I managed to slip a bit closer to the box. Little chiks! The were adorable so I stuck around to observe them. The technician then moves them all into a plastic container and asks me to hold the lid. I figured it was to prevent the babies from jumping out so I gladly helped. However, before I can even process what's going on, she tells me to pop open the lid just enough for her to slide a hose in, and I automatically do so. She then tells me not to flinch. I saw that the hose was connected to a big red cylinder but didn't put two and two together until it was too late. Next thing I know the loud PRSSSSSST sound comes and there's cold white mist coming from the container, the loud chirps getting fainter.
The chicks were sent in by a farm as specimens because there was a disease or something that contaminated the whole farm. They needed to perform an autopsy on them. The technician was had to find an efficient way to preserve the specimens. She froze them to death with a fire extinguisher. I then knew what it was like to be an accessory to murder.
I firmly believe I will never, for as long as I live, forget the dread of hearing chirps getting fainter and fainter until they stopped altogether.
If you really really really love animals, don't go to vet school.
Kim Kermes 6 days ago
My dad once said my younger sister loved all animals, so maybe she should be a vet. I looked at him in horror and said it would k**l her. He understood. I could have put it more gently, my sister got her sensitivity from him.
#26
Medical examiner here. This probably isn't a big "wow" revelation but it certainly made an impact on me. Very early in my career, I did an exam on another doctor who worked at the hospital where I trained. I didn't know this gentleman personally but was acquainted with him by reputation; he was a very happy-go-lucky sort, much loved by everyone in his department. He died unexpectedly at a young age of what turned out to be a d**g o******e on pharmaceuticals he had been diverting from the hospital. I don't think anybody saw that coming, myself included. It was a lesson to me that anybody can fall victim to a*******n, and that it's hard to know what anybody's private struggles are.
#27
Late to the thread so this will probably get buried:
Disclaimer: I am a doctor, but not a "autopsy doctor" and had never really considered pathology as a specialty when I was in medical school. This event happened in anatomy lab when I was in medical school.
In the preclinical years of medical school, most medical schools have students enroll in anatomy lab where we dissect cadavers as part of the course. One of the anatomy labs had a cadaver who had passed away from complications from kidney failure (according to the identification tab).
While that anatomy team was dissecting some of the leg and buttock muscles, they found a bullet in the gluteus medius. No idea how it got there and totally unrelated to the cause of death.
I like to imagine the guy signing paperwork to donate his body to science, thinking that the med students dissecting his butt would get a funny surprise.
#28
I am not a pathologist but when my father died from drowning, it was noted he had acute cirrhosis of the liver. The corner also removed a bullet from between his heart and spine that dad recieved in Viet Nam. It was very degraded. He had also lost a thumb and several feet of intestine there, the evidence of which was noted in the report.
Dad had served 22 years in the Army, and had been awarded the Purple Heart three times. He lived a hard life after and it was speculated he would have passed soon of cirrhosis of the liver had he not drown.
Mel in Georgia 5 days ago
I would call this another fatality caused by the Vietnam War. Very sad.
#29
Worked at an animal hospital. They did necropsies for zoos all the time. An alligator died, and they shipped it to the hospital, refrigerated etc to stop the decay. They took it out and put it up on the table. After doing all the paperwork, they started opening up the alligator. After the first cut, the alligator opened its eyes. Turns out it wasn't dead, the zoo vet mistook an illness for death and the low temperature put it basically into a coma.
Edit: Unfortunately this is all the information I know on this story. It's been 7 years since I worked at that place.
#30
Here's my personal favorite from forensics class. A s******l guy rode a bicycle for about 50 miles to get to the middle of nowhere. There, he climbed a radio tower (bringing his bicycle along to the top), drank a lethal dose of poison (mercuric cyanide if memory serves), then shot himself with 2 handguns simultaneously: one to the chest, one to the skull… and jumped.
…Died days later of *hypothermia.*.
#31
I'm a former police officer and attended several autopsies to record info for investigation files.
One guy had been shot and killed so the cause of death was pretty plain, but the pathologists doing the autopsy found a tumor the size of a walnut on his brainstem. he said the guy would have been dead in a few months even if he hadn't been shot.
another guy was dead due to a steak knife being stabbed through is heart by his wife. she claimed she grabbed the knife because she was scared he was going to k**l her and when he lunged at her the knife "just went in". But when the doctor pointed out a half dozen or so marks that looked like freckles around the wound, he swabbed a developer solution that clearly showed they were tiny little poke marks. I was able then to get her to confess that he was goading her "go ahead, do it" until she hauled off and kabob'd him.
it's not always like TV shows where the autopsy is the "aha!" moment that solves a case, but sometimes it really is.
#32
Med student almost graduated here. A couple years ago i attended the pathological anatomy course and during a class the professor showed us some autopsies. Despite the tremendous smell of 4/5 consecutive autopsies, one of them was carried out on a homeless patient that died in the ER probably due to heart failure. The body had massive ascites (fliud in the abdomen), so at first he had to evacuate it. Imagine him cutting the abdomen and the yellow rancid liquid started to come out like a fountain. One of my colleagues fainted.
Then the next step was to examine the abnominal organs. Imagine the face of every person in the room when it became clear that the patient had some form of inherited polycistic disease and the liver and the kidneys were full of cysts. The liver weighted more than 10kg (normal weight 2-3kg) and the kidneys almost 3 kg each (normally 150g each). The professor was really shocked at the beginning, but then he really enjoyed cutting through the cysts in order to get samples, they popped like airball spreading liquid all over the place. Second collegue fainted.
The other ones were pretty standard, but i think i will remember forever this one, in particular that liver on the scale. I even took a picture but i can't find it anymore :(
Thee8thsense 6 days ago
My Mom was a gifted RN who wasn't shaken by much, but while attending an autopsy of a teenage girl with long, long hair, the Dr performing the procedure cut the skull and proceeded to lift it forward by holding the hair. My Mom said it was the closest she came to fainting in her life.
#33
During my internship rotation a couple of years back, a 40 year old guy came in because he 'suddenly collapsed' while drinking with friends. He came in unresponsive, mouth bleeding, and not breathing, so we had to intubate him. For some reason, the endotracheal tube (the stiff tube placed inside the trachea to help the patient breathe) won't go in, but we managed to suction copious amounts of blood clots. After CPR (still with unsuccessful intubation so we had to bag him with a face mask), the patient was declared dead, and diagnosed with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. During the autopsy, they found out that the guy was apparently shot by a gun from the top of the head (the entry wound was obscured by his hair, and was barely bleeding at all), and the bullet somehow went through the back of the guys throat and made a hole behind the base of the tongue, which the endotracheal tube kept slipping into.
#34
Not an autopsy doctor, but did take Anatomy and Physiology II with lab in college. The lab was working on cadavers being prosected by more advanced students. A prosection is the dissection of a cadaver (human or animal) or part of a cadaver by an experienced anatomist in order to demonstrate for students anatomic structure.
ANYway, one of the cadavers (we had a male and a female for obvious reasons) was a big ol' linebacker lookin dude. Like, and older bodybuilder type? IIRC his age at time of death was late 50s.
His heart has been removed by the anatomist , and we were examining it because it was very enlarged and contributed to his death. We all had to hold it in our hands to feel the heft, like size and weight, and compare it to the heft of the female's heart, which was normal sized, about like a large apple. The male's heart, for comparison, was the size of a small cantaloupe.
I went first, for whatever reason, and the instructor lifted the enlarged heart out of its preservative bath and placed it in my hands. I d**n near dropped the thing when it shocked me with what felt like a jolt of electricity. I (understandably, I think) made a startled noise, and the instructor took the heart back before I could juggle it onto the floor.
"Oh," she said. "I forgot to warn you, look out for the pacemaker."
Apparently when someone has a pacemaker there's a battery too and they don't bother taking it out/off. They just snip the leads and leave it there, so if you touch both bare leads you get a mild shock, even through your exam gloves.
That was a mildly disturbing experience.
#35
Med student here. Had a guy OD on c*****e which he frequently used. Was an alcoholic for 30+ years and had a history of seizures. Evidently he had been hit in the head with a baseball as a young adult and never saw a doc. I went to take his brain out and this dude had a walnut sized hole in his skull. And the brain underneath looked like someone had taken an ice cream scoop to it. He had been walking around 30+ years with this hole in his head and having seizures bc of it. No wonder he started drinking. His liver was absolutely normal though.
#36
In college I took a figure drawing class and the teacher was adamant that you couldn’t draw the figure if you didn’t know what was in it so he drag us over to the anatomy lab and had the anatomy teacher show us two cadavers that were being dissected by their med students.
When it came time to ask questions of course “have you ever found something weird” in a body came up.
The story is as follows.
They get a body, and for legal reasons they aren’t told much about the person aside from medical history. They *were* told that the old man was a sort of rock star type and was a one hit wonder from his youth and to use extra discretion with him in particular/not tell the students who might recognize him. The lab is full of 20 year olds and so nobody recognized who he was (unsure if the teacher even knew but it didn’t sound like she did) or what his deal was so they wrote it off as non useful information aside from his lifestyle. He had d**g use and alcohol issues in his life and they were told he partied a lot. Cool.
The body has a raging b***r. Like 100% of the time. Teacher doesn’t think much of it aside from that he was particular endowed and everybody wrote it off as not important to their studies. So they go through the general dissection that they do. One kid wants extra credit and the teacher said sure, dissect his p***s/see why it’s hard still and write a report (apparently they don’t normally do that for that particular class so the p***s itself goes untouched from their dissections so it would have otherwise always been a mystery)
Kid finds an actual rod that he had medically inserted under the table (not in medical records) so that he would always have a b***r and could get it up while on d***s. They suspect it was done over 30-40 years prior to his death.
They removed it and keep it in the lab I believe to show their students as part of a section on under the table medical surgeries.
Anyways, that was probably the best day in figure drawing class I’ve ever had.
#37
As a student in the medical field, I had the opportunity to visit a cadaver lab. I was very surprised to see how many people had died from choking. Out of the twelve or so cadavers in the lab that day, at least 7 or 8 were from choking. I went home and immediately looked up how to perform self Heimlich.
#38
Not me but I read a story of a guy that drank anti freeze because he was freezing to death and it actually worked for a bit before he died a terrible death from the anti freeze.
Kim Kermes 6 days ago
If done soon enough, antifreeze poisoning can be reversed by copious doses of ethanol, usually in the form of vodka
#39
I’m not a doctor but my uncle(dads only brother) died when he was 17 in a car accident. In 1975. They did an autopsy and told my grandparents he died on impact and didn’t suffer. My dad personally knew the autopsy dr and he told him that he didn’t die on impact, he suffered for a bit and had internal bleeding and that’s what ultimately caused his death. My dad hasn’t and will never tell his parents.
#40
My auntie is a coroner and she was told to expect nothing more than a gunshot wound to a pregnant female. Which is what it was but the bullet had killed the woman and 9 month developed baby who had the bullet pass through and end up in the palm of its hand like it was holding it.
#41
I heard a story once about a guy who died, and completely unrelated to the 'main complaint' during the autopsy they found a grapefruit in his a*s
Apparently it had just been there the whole time.
Bi.Felicia 6 days ago
Umm, the poor grapefruit had been there for what whole time? How long is that, exactly?
#42
When I was in high school I was nominated to represent the school called the "Youth Leadership Program" that was organized by my hometown's chamber of commerce.
Each day of the week we had a day off from school and join these little themed 'field trips' and basically serving our town's communities. One day is was Agriculture Day, next was Arts and Humanities Day, etc, etc
One of these days, I will never forget, was Criminal Justice Day.
We went to the Police Department. We met the Chief of Police, listened to his lecture, and showed us around the offices and even the jail cells (we didn't see the prisoners in their cells because of numerous reasons of it being unsafe and violating the privacy of these inmates). After that we took a bus to the Corner's office.
Dude, this moment was such an impact and still gives me the chills till this day.
I just thought they were going to be like the usual, Lecture, THE END.
NOPE
They showed us slides of numerous amounts of cases of murders/suicides/unnatural deaths/natural deaths. ACTUAL SLIDES OF A REAL DEAD HUMAN BEINGS. Totally gut wrenching and mind scarring pictures of mutilated bodies or emotional impacting scenes of the person's scene/body presentation of death. Made me physically and emotionally sick.
That wasn't the end yet, ohhhh no
We had a tour
Long story short, we saw an actual LIVE autopsy done to an adult man in their 20s-30s. Cause of death was o******e (I don't remember from what, but my guess maybe?? C*****e or M**h, because they were showing off at how his heart was 2x bigger than a normal human heart. Correct me if I'm wrong). Chest cavity was exposed, they pulled out his tongue (I have no idea why??), and lastly saw through his skull to grab his brain. Coroners came by the window we were staring out from and showed off the man's brain. The smell, was horrendous... Still can remember the smell.
I think about that day EVERY SINGLE DAY after that, and how wrong it was.
Imagine being the parent of that man.. I know that he's gone, but that was once a human being and we were all there staring at his mutilated body that was once his.
Queen Boudicca 6 days ago
I realize this was very traumatic for kids and it should never be treated as a joke - but ME's do God's work in getting answers for families and ensuring the guilty get prosecuted.
#43
Six months after my aunt’s passing in a drunk driving incident, the coroner decided to ring up my mum and inform her that they completed their report on her passing, and deemed the likelihood of “s******l intentions” which may have factored into said incident; I initially didn’t understand how coroners could deduce such a thing.
Until i remembered, self harm scars are a thing.
My mum had only just gotten to the acceptance stage of grief, and it put her firmly back to square one.
She’s fine now.
#44
Not a doctor, but a whole body scientific donation technician. I'm the person who dissects cadavers after they were donated.
We very commonly would get young cases, normally overdoses. Had a mid-thirties female, went to medical examiner prior to donation, but they only did an external evaluation.
I went to check her genitals to see if I could palpate a uterus, found a c****m full of pills. Similar to most, the body became a crime scene and we couldn't touch her.
When we finally were able to continue, they asked us to photograph the pills to send to the examiners office.
They were mostly Advil and Zyrtec, easily one of the weirdest things I've ever found.
T'Mar of Vulcan 5 days ago
Zyrtec is an allergy medication/anti-histamine IIRC? I was prescribed it years back for my allergies, and only took it once because it made me basically fall asleep at my desk. "Ma'am? The children are k!ll!ng each other." "Well, ask them to do it quietly." Never took it again.
#45
I was a forensic tech for a state medical examiner's office for about 2 years. I've assisted in about 1000 autopsies and have removed bodies from scenes from likely twice that. I told these stories in another AskReddit thread about people who clean up crime scenes, and I have a few takeaways:
1. Man who had a psychotic break and castrated himself and stuffed it all into this mouth before cutting his own throat.
2. Man who was sodomized to death with a broom, a baseball bat, and the tuning end of a guitar.
3. Man who decapitated himself by hanging himself with high tension cable and jumping off a bridge.
4. Woman overdosing whilst carrying an 8-month pregnancy.
No really any major revelations like, in terms of something wild unexpected or a medical finding that contradicts the police report. Just seen enough s**t in one lifetime for 100 people.
#46
Nobody will care about this one and I can't blame them, but when else will I get to share this story?
I was living in northern BC, Canada, and a friend of my then-boss was found dead beside a lake with no obvious cause, so an autopsy was performed.
He was, if memory serves, about seventy years old and in excellent physical condition. He had gone out on the lake in his boat and capsized, and swam back to shore. But when he got there he must have decided to rest, and fell asleep with his feet in the water. He died of hypothermia.
I think of this a lot when I consider survival situations. Everyone, if you're in trouble, don't give up too soon. Don't quit, don't stop to rest until you're sure it's safe to do so.
#47
My grandmother had a massive stroke in her 30s that paralyzed her entire left side, and died in her 60s from a heart attack, but while doing the autopsy they found out she had bad lung cancer, but she never had any pain from it because it was in her left lung. She was a very heavy smoker, so it made sense, its just crazy that she had lung cancer and never knew.
Jenny 5 days ago
My MIL didn't know she had lung cancer until 2 weeks before she died. The previous November, she'd had a CT scan due to an ongoing cough/breathing issue, which was clear. She died May 18th the following year, with an 11cm lung tumour with metastases throughout her internal organs.
#48
I worked at a coroner’s office for a while and once we had a guy who we thought had died from an OD on m**h. Well we started the autopsy and i went to cut his lungs out and blueberry muffin mix started coming out of them. I stuck my finger in his mouth and it was full of blueberry muffin mix. And it was in throat. Turns out he got just high enough to pass out while eating the muffin mix and he ended up choking to death.
John Mosley 6 days ago
I stuck my finger in his mouth and...my brain instantly filled in...tasted it! NO!
#49
I am a pre-med student and one time while shadowing a forensic pathologist, 3 days before Christmas, he was doing an autopsy on an automobile vs pedestrian accident. The man’s face was completely smashed in. When they take samples of the brain they cut the skin, pull it over the face, and the cut off the top of the skull. when they did that the skull was basically shattered and bone fragments pulled back with the skin and when they cut off the skull cap, the brain was obviously damaged and the eyeballs had been pushed back/fallen through the orbits and into the cranial cavity.
The guy also had $10,000 in cash in his jean pockets. According to police he had a record involving d***s so the theory was either a d**g deal gone bad or he stumbled into the road while under the influence.
#50
I'm a medical student, not a doctor, but when I dissected my cadaver in my first year, it had lots of surgical markings and was pretty overweight. After I'd been able to work through all the parts of the body with my group, we were able to piece together with our lab leader that our donor had been in and out of the hospital for a quadruple bypass, followed by a pacemaker, a stomach stapling, and then what looked like an emergency open-heart surgery that she died during.
Not a rare disease or strange occurrence per se, but it was interesting finding clues around the body as we learned anatomy.
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Cathy Jo Baker 4 days ago
Dear BP: we're adults here, most of us have been around the block a time or two, and we have seen stuff. It's not going to damage us to see the words O******E, C*****E, M**H, D***S, S*****E, R**E... we can handle it, trust us a little.
Betsy S 3 days ago
I agree. I don't know why they don't just grow the hell up and use the words that are legitimate words. We are not in kindergarten! Why does BP behave as though THEY are?
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jasper 5 days ago
My brother runs the cadaver lab at a local college. He has interesting stories sometimes.
Wild Cream 5 days ago
You literally think everything is fake, not sure why you’re even here
Load More Replies... Cathy Jo Baker 4 days ago
Dear BP: we're adults here, most of us have been around the block a time or two, and we have seen stuff. It's not going to damage us to see the words O******E, C*****E, M**H, D***S, S*****E, R**E... we can handle it, trust us a little.
Betsy S 3 days ago
I agree. I don't know why they don't just grow the hell up and use the words that are legitimate words. We are not in kindergarten! Why does BP behave as though THEY are?
Load More Replies... jasper 5 days ago
My brother runs the cadaver lab at a local college. He has interesting stories sometimes.
Wild Cream 5 days ago
You literally think everything is fake, not sure why you’re even here
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