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“They’d Perforated Her Uterus”: 20 Medical Examinations That Showed Unexpected Results
Morgues are a classic location in a good mystery or thriller since a corpse is a perfectly macabre clue to include in a story. However, there are still very real places, but that doesn’t mean that the folks that work there don’t have stories of their own.
We’ve gathered examples of the weirdest, most disturbing or just strangest things autopsy experts have found when examining a person’s body. Be warned, some of these get unpleasant. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below.
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#1
Veterinarian here.
Had a five-year old dog die on me four or five days following me spaying her. ER vet did an ultrasound and saw fluid in the abdomen and she blamed me for mucking up the surgery.
So I was pretty sure I didn't mess up the surgery because 1) I've done thousands and 2) she would've crashed sooner. I paid for the necropsy myself to prove I didn't botch it.
Turns out there was a splenic tumor that had ruptured and caused her to bleed out. It was s****y timing that made it look like a botched surgery. Well, s****y timing and if the ER vet had done a complete ultrasound instead of jumping to blaming somebody else.
Good owners forgave me, apologized and are still good clients to this day.
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#2
Kid died supposedly of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). X-rays were initially read as normal. The family gave permission for organ donation, and afterwards an autopsy was performed ... which found multiple rib fractures. Review of initial X-rays showed that they were there when the baby was first brought in. Other evidence of shaken baby syndrome was also found. -> So, instead of tragic death of (generally) unknown cause, autopsy revealed a more sinister circumstance.
#3
It was thought to be a s*****e following an abortion (patient had refused everything to eat or drink and had gone into her room after arriving home and refused to leave it), but it turned out they'd perforated her uterus during the abortion.
#4
Man was shot by .22 in the leg. X-ray showed that the bullet was not in the leg. Being a minimal wound, with a very tiny entry point it was suggested teh bullet either never made full entry and came out on its own.
Gentleman dies less than 24 hours later. Just drops.
Turns out the bullet somehow made it into his main femoral artery and then made it to the heart where it caused a blockage and then a heart attack.
#5
Only second hand but I've seen evidence without asking for it. A guy fell in the bathroom and stuck the toilet brush handle through his eye-socket into his brain. Was barely alive when he arrived at the hospital and didn't make it. If this had been in a movie, I would have thought it was far too ridiculous. By far the weirdest of very few.
#6
I'm not in any of the jobs you mentioned, but I'm an ICU nurse and we see plenty of weird s**t. The weirdest death I've seen is a guy who came into our unit with stridor and difficulty breathing. He was intubated and on a ventilator. There was a weird 'shadow' on his chest x-ray. We did a bronchoscope ( a camera down into his airways) and pulled out about 1/3 of a bread roll... from his right LUNG. He ended up dying from sepsis/ARDS
#7
Not a doctor or forensic pathologist but was a criminal investigator. Found a 42 year old male dead on his couch without any remarkable cause, heart attack was suspected but turned out not to be the case.
**Exsanguination via ruptured esophageal verices compounded by cirrhosis.**
Translation: Liver hardened due to alcoholism caused excessive blood pressure in arteries inside of esophogous to his stomach, they eventually ruptured and he bled to death through his GI tract with no idea anything was wrong.
#8
The first autopsy I watched as a medical student, the lady was elderly, had varicose veins. She was feeding her chickens and brushed past a jagged bit of wire fencing, which punctured one of her varicose veins in her leg. She ended up exsanguinating - because it was venous circulation, if she had laid on the ground and put her leg up she probably would have survived.
#9
Autopsy technician here, I do the cutting while the pathologist supervises. My strangest was a two year old who looked absolutely healthy despite being deceased, the doc cryptically told us to collect the eyes as a histology sample. Turned out the kid had latent downs syndrome and died due to complications thereof. I didn't know the physical symptoms could be so mild.
Not-a-Clue (she/her) 2 weeks ago
Latent Down Syndrome? As it's in the chromosones, does this just mean someone has it but didn't 'look' like they did? Can anyone explain?
#10
Not a technician- just happened to be in the ICU/Surgery waiting room after my grandfather had a major surgery. The other woman with me was waiting to hear about her husband. He was working on the gutters or roof (I don't remember which). He fell landing on an upright broom. The stick perforated his rectum and bowels. He did not survive.
Rick Murray 2 weeks ago
Oh my giddy aunt, imagine the pain... [my entire body cringed as I read this]
#11
When I was volunteering at the morgue, we had a guy come in who had been hit by a train. We thought it was a s*****e but eventually determined it was accidental, cause the guy had been walking along the tracks and listening to music. When the train came along, the music was so loud he didn't hear the train until it hit him.
#12
My old forensics professor used to be a coroner (either that or pathologist). He had permission from the families to show us slides from scenes/autopsies in our classes. One that stayed with me was a gentleman who committed s*****e and tattooed a Y-incision down his chest with "Dear coroner, be gentle" tattooed down it.
#13
Not a mortician, but most unusual IRL cases I'm aware of were the following:
* Back pain which escalated in short period of time (as in less than 24 hours), k**led patient, and ended up being undetected MRSA. Back pain was the only symptom.
* Man who presented with nothing more than abdominal and back pain, passed, and ended up having a ruptured aorta due to c*****e use. Yet again, the only symptoms were back and abdominal pain.
Now every time I have back pain, I'm worried I have MRSA or my aorta ruptured due to my overwhelming consumption of coffee.
#14
Second hand story, but I spoke to an autopsy technician who opened up the throat of a choking victim and found a whole dim sim. It wasn't even chewed.
#15
Not a doctor, but sorta related.
Most bizzare thing Ive seen a doctor put onto a Medical Certificate of Death as the cause of death: "Failure to exist".
gee, thanks doc. Way to be specific.
#16
Not a doctor, but this was still unexpected.
My one year old sister died a month ago, originally the doctors thought it was a horrible reaction to the antibiotics she was on, as she showed the most common side effects the d**g had (Slow loss of sight, lack of appetite, bad facial motor skills). The autopsy came back a few days ago, apparently it was from SBS and she had major brain hemorrhaging, her neck was messed up and her body showed evidence of her being r***d.
Beth Wheeler 2 weeks ago (edited)
Oh dear God, that poor baby. I hope they got the man that did that to her!
#17
Medical student, not a doctor.
In my anatomy class we each got a body to dissect, I got and elderly woman who died of cancer, so I spent a lot of time looking at metastasis in and around her lungs. When checking her now empty chest cavity I found a piece of thick, coarse blue string around one of her ribs. Like a thin piece of nylon rope. Presented it to the conservator, he had no idea how it could have gotten there during the embalming process, and she had no recent scars on her chest.
...some of her [precious] previous doctors were not on top of their game.
#18
I used to cut corneas, blood vessels, heart valves, tendons, and bones out of the deceased for transplants, so I went to the medical examiners almost daily. Saw all sorts of crazy things. Saw a guy that went through a road chipper (the giant machine that chews up old roads). Largest piece of him was baseball sized. Saw a cannon to the face point blank. Dogs chewing off the faces of their dead owners. I could go on and on.
#19
I saw an episode of true ER stories, a woman came in over some reason about stomach pains and died.
She apparently died of snake poison because of s*x play in which a poisonous snake was placed in her open b******e.
#20
Not a doc quite yet (I'm in medschool) but I want to be a pathologist and I'm fairly far along. I intern at one of my uni's hospitals in pathology and as such I get to assist (and sometimes perform solo, with just the doc's signature at the end) in autopsies.
One particular one that comes to mind was this patient who had a somewhat massive adenocarcinoma in his lungs (think a big white blob approximately the size of a baseball) that had metastasized to his liver among other things iirc.
Anyway, he died from a case of pneumonia caused by a MACI infection.
Edit: I realised that MACI might be an acronym specific to my language. It is multidrugresistant acinetobacter baumannii.
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