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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.
RELATED:
#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.
Toothless Feline 6 months ago
I’m of the opinion that more SIDS deaths are due to trauma (intentional or accidental) than most people want to admit. I couldn’t begin to estimate how many, but I’m sure it’s more than get reported as such.
Boris Long-Johnson 6 months ago
See I’m not so sure - as awful as it is I do wonder if SOME perpetrators of SBS deserve compassion (although I’m not saying they shouldn’t be punished). You’re sleep deprived (a known interrogation/t*****e method) and having to listen to your child wailing all night and just want some peace let alone sleep, you’ve tried everything to settle the baby and it just won’t. I’m not saying it’s right but mix in a dollop of post partum depression and I can start to get an inkling of their mindset.
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Michael Largey 6 months ago
Puzzled here. If you are guilty of your child's death but are unsuspected, why would you voluntarily give the child's body over to where it will be closely examined?
Catlady6000 6 months ago
People rarely remember what they've done during psychotic breaks. I can't imagine finding out I had done this and cant even remember
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BrownEyedPanda 6 months ago
Replying to Sadie Enward: do you REALLY believe that? That every baby who died of SIDS was àbused? Because if you do, I feel very sorry for you.
Auntriarch 6 months ago
Sadie is a troll, as Crystalwitch says. Also I'm really hoping that Enward isn't pronounced N-word.
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Lowrider 56 6 months ago
One of my dad's work friends had a baby that passed away from S.I.D.S. Don't know how I would react. I always wondered if people think he it did something wrong?.Be hard to live life with that hanging over you.
Nika Strokappe 5 months ago
For organ donation the heart must remain pumping and oxygen flowing, so we're the c*****d ribs not due to CPR? How else did they keep the organs good enough?
Nika Strokappe 5 months ago
Okay, sorry for the offence, fractured ribs...
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#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.
Nikole 6 months ago
I have a *tasteful* coat hanger necklace, as that will be birth control in many states and women will (continue to) die.
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SkyBlueandBlack 6 months ago
How? They know exactly what'll happen. They're counting on it.
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Lil Nitemare 6 months ago
After 9/11 I wondered if our government cared, during COVID I decided they didn't, and then after Dobbs I realized they just want us dead.
#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.
Strings 6 months ago
Wait a sec. I thought arteries flow away from the heart, growing gradually smaller until turning into veins on the return trip. So a chunk of lead .22 inches in diameter made it all the way through the circulatory system (which gets MUCH smaller, IIRC)...
Harry Gondalf 6 months ago
Wait a minute -- femoral _artery?_ Arterial blood flow is _away_ from the heart, not towards it. I can see this happening if the bullet lodged in the femoral vein, not the artery.
TotallyNOTAFox 6 months ago (edited)
And that's why protocol states to check the blood vessels in cases an object pierces the leg because they are densely packed with them - at least in civilised countries
Charity Angel 6 months ago
You'd think. And I thought they were supposed to hunt for missing bullets, precisely because of things like this.
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Melissa Harris 6 months ago
This has got to be quite old as it's well known that small caliber amunition can enter large vessels and migrate around the body, bullet fragments as well.
Didi Magnin 3 months ago
I think that would be the vein. If it was the artery the bullet would have gone down and stick in the capilleries
#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.
MeowZedong 6 months ago (edited)
For every guy that survives something ridiculous there's a person that something like this happens too,
weatherwitch 6 months ago
Poor sod 😔😔 But also imagine a hundred years in the future and discovering this is how your ancestor died.... 💀
#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
PeepPeep the duck 6 months ago (edited)
Only thing I can think of, cos my sister was born this way too, sometimes the flappy thing that closes when you eat isn’t formed properly or at all, my sister had none so they caught it super early as a baby, but I heard from drs a lot of people have it not as drastic and partially formed or malfunctioning, and they go their whole lives not knowing until they have a horrid accident involving choking
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Melissa Harris 6 months ago
Aspirating food or other matter is quite dangerous. If it's more the a tablespoon of liquid or you don't cough it up you should probably see a doctor. Dry drowning is caused by water being retained in the lungs. A large chunk of inhaled food won't just digest or disappear but can rot in the lungs and cause sepsis like this case.
#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.
DC 6 months ago
Acohol is among the worst. The fact that it is legal and therefore, shady production and questionable handling is practically off any tables tames it down a large chunk. It's literally a nerve destroyer, a disinfectant, an alternative to gasoline.
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Lil Nitemare 6 months ago
I've always found it interesting that her in the US alcohol is readily available, but where I'm at marijuana is still illegal.
Debby Keir 6 months ago
Charles Kennedy, a well known Scottish politician, died from similar causes.
Bobbie McMasters 6 months ago
The cause for this guy was alcoholism. For others, it's PBC and we are very protective of our livers.
CF 6 months ago
Those happened to a friend's alcoholic father in high school. I was closer friends with the neighbor my age, than with the daughter of the dead man, so the details were 2nd or 3rd hand. My impression was that the little brother (8-10yrs) found the father, and that he didn't bleed only into his GI tract. A gruesome scene was reported.
#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.
Upstaged75 6 months ago
My friend's husband had the same thing happen. He knew enough to wrap and elevate it though. Their bathroom looked like a murder scene.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 6 months ago
I remember being taught this in first aid training many years ago. The example given was a shopping trolley bumping into someone with varicose veins, rupturing them.
#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) 6 months 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?
BAN CAPITAL LETTERS 6 months ago
It means some cells have the normal 2 copies of the 21st chromosome and some cells have 3 copies (hence "mosaic")
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Joanne Mendonza-Earle 6 months ago
I can't imagine how hard it must be to be a medical examiner, but esp on children.
Kathy Jackson 6 months ago
there are 3 types of downs syndrome.first is trisomy 21 which is about 84 percent of the downs population.extemely common form.next is translocation which is rare and mosaic which is even rarer too.
Tara L. 6 months ago
The phrase "latent Down syndrome and died due to complications thereof" is misleading and medically confusing. Here's why: 1. "Latent Down syndrome" is not a medically recognized term. Down syndrome (also called trisomy 21) is a genetic condition present from birth. It can't be "latent" (hidden or dormant), because it's not something that suddenly appears or becomes active later in life. 2. Complications of Down syndrome can include: Congenital heart defects (common and potentially fatal without treatment) Respiratory issues Increased susceptibility to infections Gastrointestinal abnormalities Leukemia or other blood disorders 3. So if someone says the child died due to complications of Down syndrome, they likely mean: The child had undiagnosed or unrecognized Down syndrome, and A medical issue associated with it (such as a heart defect or infection) caused the death.
#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 6 months ago
Oh my giddy aunt, imagine the pain... [my entire body cringed as I read this]
Stephanie Did It 6 months ago
My FIL's father, at home on his farm in the 1920s, fell off his windmill onto the picket fence that surrounded it. He landed on his stomach. It must have been horrible.
Ace 6 months ago
Not sure why G A's comment was so downvoted. I can only assiume people just did not get the joke. It's a very old joke. "Wrecked 'em", you see?
#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.
Jaya 6 months ago
Talk about jumping to conclusions. People who commit suícide never listen to music while ending their life? Also, if someone wanted to end his life but was scared of the impact, he could use the loud music precisely to not hear the train coming.
Bookworm 6 months ago (edited)
Presumably there's a difference in the pattern of injuries if it's an accidental death vs. a su!cide. Like how they can tell based on injuries if someone fell or was pushed off a height. Without witnesses there's an element of hypothesizing based on the available evidence.
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Uncle Panda 6 months ago
I grew up playing on train tracks. A train shakes the entire WORLD when it comes through. I don't think this was an accident.
Svenne O'Lotta 6 months ago
Are you aware that different kinds of trains exist? Electric trains at lower speeds don't make a whole lot of noise or shake anything.
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Xenia Harley 6 months ago
In the town I was living in, three teens were walking along the track when a train was coming. Male and his girlfriend get off the tracks, while the other female freezes on the tracks. Male went to push her off, which he did, but he was hit and killed by the train. It really shook me as my son was a year older and used to cross/walk on those tracks often to get to a friend's house. (He only told me after this accident.)
The Majestic Opossum 6 months ago
I call BS. He didn't feel the vibrations on the track? How would they determine he was listening to music at that volume, or at all for that matter?? Who TF walks down the middle of train tracks, instead of on the side of the tracks, of if they MUST walk down the middle, does so while not paying attention for trains?
Libstak 6 months ago
He could mistake it for vibration because of the bass in the music.
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Jasmin Lapan 5 months ago
It might be s*****e still, why walk on an active traintracks with full loud music on a headphone. He somewhat mitigated the terror of the incoming train.
#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.
KieLeaHar 5 months ago
Tattooists don’t care :) they’ve seen everything. 😂— my friend, a tattoo artist. What she REFUSES to do is ANYTHING racist, or anything on anyone under 18.
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N.C. O'Brien 6 months ago
People seem to assume this way of dying is impulsive. It’s not and most have been planned way in advance
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#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.
Tussilago 6 months ago
If the censored word is co caine the last sentence about coffee makes no sense at all
Jelena Putinja 6 months ago
why is everything censored ??? I don't understand half of stories because of that
Lowrider 56 6 months ago
My Uncle went to the dr on a Friday for sore lower back. Dr said he was fine, just tore some muscles. Died from heart attack on his way home.
#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.
Peeka_Mimi 6 months ago
Living alone I have read that choking causes a significant amount of deaths particularly amongst the geriatric community. So I have taught myself the self heimlich maneuver and I chew my food, probably a little extra than normal.
#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.
LinkTheHylian 6 months ago
"How did the patient die?" "A severe case of non-existence." "...What?"
Rick Murray 6 months ago
Insurance thing? Sometimes there's no payout if it's a suícide, so maybe this is saying that without saying that?
Huddo's sister 6 months ago
At least two infants in my family had 'failure to thrive' on their death certificates. We think it was probably cystic fibrosis, but they didn't know about that at the time.
Philly Bob 6 months ago
He died doing what he loved, which was clinging to life and trying not to die. Which he was very good at… until recently."
#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 6 months ago (edited)
Oh dear God, that poor baby. I hope they got the man that did that to her!
LinkTheHylian 6 months ago
This post was from 11 years ago. OP said police suspected the girl's babysitter and/or her boyfriend. There were no updates beyond that.
Mommy Panda 6 months ago
May the person who did that to her die a very slow and extremely painfull death and rot in hell forever!
Leg less In Minneapolis 6 months ago
I went Reddit to see the comment and found more info. In response to a police investigation question Theyre currently suspecting the babysitter/her boyfriend. My family all passed the lie detector tests, but the baby sitter and her boyfriend refuses to take it and is getting a lawyer. Smart on their part, but the police find it suspicious. Im getting all of this information through text, my parents cant see me for time being, so I dont have a ton of information. And, this sad answer I just asked our lawyer if it was okay to put details out there, and he said it was fine. My whole family basically knows about it on Facebook already, my parents like to gossip. The babysitter admitted that she threw my sister across the room after shaking her, but she didn't think it would affect anything, only bruise her. She thought SBS could only happen to younger children, not a year old. She also said she knew nothing about the sexual a*****t, so the police are still investigating about that.
Deleila Charlie 6 months ago
I'm currently in bed, sick for 2 weeks due to a liver infection and jaundice because of one antibiotica. And I'll be sick most likely for 3 more weeks. Don't underestimate the risk of allergic reactions to medication.
Load More Replies... Elizabethe Carlisle 6 months ago (edited)
Your one year old sister? How old are you? Are you the perpetrator?
#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.
WindySwede 6 months ago
OP "Edit: Yes, autocorrect mistake. My phone is not a native English speller. Edit: Yes, spelling mistakes too." So the 'precious' was a error?
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#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.
G A 6 months ago
My cats would eat me, no question. I just hope they wait until I'm actually dead first.
Toothless Feline 6 months ago
We were actually surprised that my MIL’s cat didn’t try to eat her after she died. It was estimated that she died a couple days before we found her, and the cat was clearly hungry, but she hadn’t touched the body.
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Peeka_Mimi 6 months ago
I live alone and fully expect to be eaten by my dogs and cats after I die. Although I think my daughter will notice in a couple days.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
So sending the road chipper guy in to have parts salvaged - was that a joke or a jobsworth?
#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.
Jaya 6 months ago
Poor snake. Imagine just minding your own business and then you get put into someone's bútthole.
Chuck the Cat 6 months ago
What the actual hell. A snake? A SNAKE?! Why would you do that? Just WHAT?!
Bubs (he/they) 6 months ago
hey, casual reminder that involving animals in any way during sexual activities is zoophilia/b********y and is illegal! leave those poor animals alone!
#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.
G A 6 months ago
This really doesn't tell anyone anything unless they have a medical dictionary
Svenne O'Lotta 6 months ago
Stick to pathology. An important part of a doctor's job is explaining things to patients in a way they understand. And you absolutely fail at that.
Cynthia Christie 6 months ago
An acinetobacter baumannii! Well that clears it up! Why didn't you just say that in the first place! 😂
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