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“The Eyes After Death”: 50 Of The Most Bizarrely Fascinating Photos Shared By Medical Professionals (New Pics)
Have you ever seen a close-up of someone's eyes after death? How about the aftermath of a C-section that a woman performed on herself? These might sound like scenes from a horror movie or medical drama, but they're not.
Below, you'll find receipts of true medical cases and procedures shared by those who work in the field. These photographs aren’t your average flu cases or sprained ankles. They're the eye-opening jaw-droppers, and the “wow” moments that left even some doctors, nurses and students stunned.
There's an online community made up of medical professionals from around the globe, and some curious onlookers. The page is called r/MEDizzy and has more than 372,000 members, all there to discuss amazing medical cases, watch useful medical videos and share inspiring pictures.
Bored Panda has put together a list of the best - and most bizarre - posts from the community. Some are gory, others are fascinating, a few are simply factual. All prove that the human body truly is an incredible sight to behold. We also explain why so many people love watching medical dramas. You'll find that info between the pics.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Before And After Orthognathic Surgery
It takes a special kind of person to enter the medical field. You hold someone's life in your hands. The responsibility is real. But besides having the brains, you need to have the guts and stomach to handle anything that an unpredictable day or night may throw at you. Many of us can watch medical dramas unfold from the comfort of our couch. But as for being part of the real deal? No thank you, I'll pass.
Medicine has always been a mix of science, mystery, and—on occasion—the pure shocking or bizarre. Think surgeons discovering household objects lodged in places they definitely shouldn’t be, patients exhibiting symptoms that baffle even the most seasoned professionals, or rare cases of people performing surgery on themselves and then visiting a doctor or hospital after the fact.
RELATED:
#2
Before And After Surgery For Blount's Disease
While many of us ordinary people wouldn't dream of becoming doctors or surgeons, that hasn't stopped us from getting sucked into scrolling through pics like these, watching a gripping medical drama series, or even a tense and gory documentary.
Shows like Grey's Anatomy, E.R. and House M.D. have proven for years that the public just can't get enough of what happens behind the closed doors of a busy, chaotic hospital. Even if we want to look away sometimes.
And there's apparently a scientific explanation for that...
#3
Before And After Of An Extensive Maxillofacial Surgery
The Majestic Opossum 5 months ago
It is interesting to me that cleft pallet is so much more common in certain parts of the world. Not saying that is the case with this example, but bless the physicians who donate their time and skill to help correct this and give so many a second chance at life.
According to experts, what happens to your brain when you watch graphic medical footage is similar to the kind of reaction you might have if you were to witness it firsthand. Watching emergency room shows activates the sympathetic nervous system, says neuropsychologist Dr. Marian Rissenberg.
"The fight or flight response is triggered, which increases heart rate and blood pressure and redirects blood from our major organs to our limbs, so we can battle or run, and so on," the doctor told Bustle. "We like the feeling of being scared, on a smaller scale or a virtual plane, when we are confident we will be okay."
#5
This Woman Performed A C-Section On Herself After Struggling During Labor And Not Having Access To Immediate Medical Care. Both She And The Baby Lived!
But why can surgeons handle the drama in real life while some of those outside of the field would flee? It's got to do with how your brain adapts to seeing things. Doctors subconsciously program their brains to see injuries as a problems that need to be fixed, rather than stimuli to have an emotional response over, says Rissenberg.
"When a motor response is practiced many times, the cerebellum makes a macro for it (a mini short-cut program) so even if it's very complex, you can do it without your cortex — without thinking."
#6
Dr. Virginia Apgar. The Inventor Of Newborn's 'Apgar Score' That Is Saving Millions Of Babies Everyday
But as we mentioned earlier, some people are just automatically hardwired to be able to deal with blood and gore, while others aren't. "Some people thrive on the adrenaline rush of working in the ER say, but many of us would find it too stressful," explains the expert. "We all have a different optimal stress level, too much and we’re anxious, not enough and we’re bored."
#7
The Difference After Jaw Surgery And Rhinoplasty Made On This Woman
#8
13 Vertebral Bodies Taken From An Organ Donor To Be Used For Bone Marrow
anda_ammonium:
We are just meat.
#9
Well Done Nose Prosthetic
Beth Wheeler 5 months ago
When I worked in MRI there's a guy that had lost his nose because of cancer. You could see into his sinus cavities & he usually had a gause pad taped over it.
While many of us won't hold a scalpel and use it, we will actively seek out footage or photos that show someone else doing that. Basically, we get a thrill out of activating our fight-or-flight response.
"We have a morbid fascination with nature," Rissenberg says. "Particularly our own amazing bodies, and all the things that can go wrong, but that are thankfully not going wrong for us in the moment."
#10
Perfectly Lined Up Sternotomy Sealing, The Surgeon Is Amazing
#11
Lightning Strike Causes Patterned Charring Along The Contact Points Of A Metallic Locket!
#12
This 3D CT Scan Shows Multiple Fractures As The Result Of A Motorcycle Accident At High Speed
Ace 5 months ago
Ouch. I came close, hitting the armco barrier backwards and upside down at high speed. Thankfully, at least in part due to the back protection built in to my jacket, the vertebrae shattered but did not move, all the ribs were broken, but at the front, showing how the impact had been transferred away from the spine by said protection. I haven't ridden a motorcycle since, now nearly 20 years ago, scan0002-6...89e800.jpg 
The medical shows also satisfy our curiosity, says Chicago-based emergency medicine physician Dr. Sonia Shah. We get a peek inside a world we would not ordinarily be invited to see.
"I imagine that on some subconscious level, we cannot help but be intrigued at seeing something so socially unacceptable and morbid," says Shah.
#13
Osteosarcoma
Osteosarcoma is a malignant tumors which begins in the bone forming cells. It typically occurs in young patients with 75% taking place before the age of 20 as the growth centers of the bone are more active during puberty.
Beth Wheeler 5 months ago
I've seen scans from MRI and Nuclear Medicine of Osteosarcoma and they are scary. Several of them ended up as amputation and either radiation treatments or chemo.
#14
Patient Got Bit By A Stray Dog, And This Is His Rabies Vaccine And Immune Globulin Set Up
Beth Wheeler 5 months ago
I actually have to schedule them sometimes for people. You have to go to the ER for the 1st shot and for the bite or scratch to be cleaned. The rest of the shots are scheduled in 1 of our Urgent Cares and everybody says they are very painful.
#15
Gouty Arthritis
Sometimes we watch medical dramas to help us feel better about our own conditions. "When you are a patient being treated and see their condition get better and worse, it intrigues us," writes high school student Echo Brooke.
"You typically get sent through a range of emotions like fear and relief. This tends to activate our fight-or-flight response. This can give you a boost of energy and release dopamine, making you feel happier," she adds.
#16
CT Scan Of A 13 Year Old From Gaza
#17
Blood From 5 Y/O With Nephrotic Syndrome
Cerridwn d'Wyse 5 months ago
I have seen blood like that and if you're not expecting and you go to draw blood it is totally shocking. The case I saw was a different diagnosis but the white milky blood was definitely there
KieLeaHar 3 months ago
Poor bubba. I’ve been there. Still going. I -WAS- surviving on one kidney on around 68% til the shítty thing that destroyed my existence happened.. now my girl’s functions ebbs and flows on bad and good days between 14%-38%. She’s gotten down to 8% before and I thought I was having an okay week. I was wrong. My dr at the time— awesome Dr, he was!! Rang me and asked how I was, I said I’m doing alright and he just said ‘no, you’re not. You NEED to go to hospital IMMEDIATELY. I’m faxing them the paperwork’.. yeah, we got there and they ‘couldn’t find it’. Meaning they didn’t bother to even look 🙄. Typical public hospital receptionists. I was being polite and friendly but as soon as my mum heard them say that she went into mumma bear mode and my paperwork ✨ magically turned up ✨ within about 2 minutes.. weird 🤷♀️
#18
Chainsaw Accident On X-Ray
Of course, many people are purely fascinated by the inner workings of the human body. And we get to learn through shows like Grey's, or listicles like the ones featured on Bored Panda.
"Being healthy and knowing if something is wrong is important for most, so watching these shows can have an appeal to them," writes Brooke. "It makes us feel like we know more about our bodies and can give us almost a sense of control."
#19
Patient Came In For Tooth Pain (Does Not Have Teeth)
55yo female came in for emergency dental visit. After ruling out any dental related issue, the doctor expressed concerns about the (softball size) mass on the right side of her face.
Impaired vision in right eye, obstructed nasal airway, impaired speech and ability to eat.
Patient claims the mass formed only 2 months ago but showed an image of it a bit smaller dated last year. Says when it bothers her she gets antibiotic/steroid and it goes down a little.
Immediate referral to ENT.
#20
The Eyes After Death
After death, there is are no pupillary reflexes to light. The cornea of the deceased becomes cloudy after two hours of death. Besides that, the pressure in the eyes start to decrease and the eyeballs become flaccid before it they sink into the orbits of the eyes.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
The black/red lines are what is called "Tache noire". It develops on the eye literally at the seam of the eyelids where the eyes are exposed to air, if the eyes are not completely closed post-mortem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tache_noir_de_la_sclerotique
#21
A 66-Year-Old Man “Accidentally” Fell On A Matryoshka Doll This Last Christmas Eve Night In Rome
#22
Heavy Calculus Removal
#23
Just Got Out Of My Latest Surgery. Hoping I Can Now Breathe Without Tubes. Also, Chin Evened Out Using Fat From My Stomach
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
From OP on Reddit: "It’s a sad story, I had my dog for 10 years from a puppy, Id had multiple seizures around him and he’d always been there kind of watching over me as I came round. For some reason this time he obviously got really scared and in trying to bring me round or whatever, this damage was done. One of my biggest fears was that he’d be put down but fortunately he was rehomed by a retired couple who love him to bits, but he was my best friend and I miss him every day."
#24
These Are Mulberry Molars, Which Are Associated With Congenital Syphilis
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
These are Hutchinson's teeth, a sign of congenital syphilis. Mulberry molars are also a sign of congenital syphilis, but these are incisors XD
#25
Bungee Cord To The Eye Caused Man's Iris To Collapse Into Multiple Deformed Pupils
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Luckily the patient was able to have surgery that helped repair some of the damage and restore some of their vision! https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/health/collapsed-iris-case-study/index.html
#26
Nerve That Was Extracted During My Root Canal This Morning
#28
A Man In Peru Experienced An Unusual Swelling, Resembling A Balloon, Following A Fishing Accident
After a deep-sea diving expedition for shellfish, he had to quickly resurface due to the propeller of a large commercial vessel severing his compressed air supply.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
So, a more coherent explanation is that he was deep-sea diving. A vessel's propeller struck his air supply line, requiring him to surface immediately and rapidly. When you have dived down to depth, you CAN NOT safely come to the surface "quickly" without risking (at the least) decompression sickness and (at worst) death, due to the dissolved nitrogen in the blood that comes from breathing the gas mixture that divers must breathe at depth (it's not "air", it's a nitrogen-oxygen mixture, or sometimes a tri-mix with helium.) The fastest safe "ascent" should be 10m/33ft per minute, for any dives deeper than 6m/20ft. Obviously if your air supply hose gets hit, you can't slowly ascend over several minutes and must make an emergency ascent. We can see the result an emergency ascent had on this man's body here :(
#29
The Patient Was Trying To Get A Pencil Out Of Her Purse Then She Tripped On A Sidewalk Resulting In This Photo
#30
PE Removal With New Procedure. Here’s What They Sucked Out Of My Lungs Via My Groin Last Week
#31
Laser Tattoo Removal Gone Wrong!
#32
Knee Aspiration Following Acute Gout Flareup
Patient presented to clinic approximately 3 days into a flareup of gout. 55 ccs of fluid were pulled off and uric acid crystals could be seen in the aspirate. For context, synovial fluid is normally transparent and yellow.
chunky hoey 5 months ago
My late mum had bouts of gouts on her bunion foot.....was very painful for her. She also had arthritis too.
#33
Giant Scalp Arteriovenous Malformation
Scalp arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a rare congenital disorder. It is an abnormal connection between a feeding artery and draining veins. Patients are usually diagnosed during late childhood to early adulthood.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Untreated AVMs in the scalp can cause heart failure due to these malformed veins causing a reduce in backflow in the vascular system. They can also rupture and cause bleeding and potentially even death if the bleed is bad enough. Fortunately, many scalp ones can be treated, either by surgical removal or with other methods such as endovascular embolization.
#34
My Broken Femur And The Repair
#35
A Chest X-Ray In 1914
#36
Penetrating Branch Root Injury In A Motorcycle Enduro Rider!
During an off-road motorcycle enduro race, the individual faced a difficult part of the track covered in dense plants and branches hanging overhead.
#37
Extremely Pruned Fingers After Picking Mangos Without Gloves
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
So here's a crazy thing: mangoes belong to the same family as cashews... and poison ivy, poison oak, and sumac (Anacardiaceae.) Many of these plants contain urushiol, an oil that causes contact dermatitis when the plant is touched. So, basically, picking mangoes without gloves can have the same physiological effects as touching poison ivy or poison oak.
#38
Blue Blood. An Incredibly Rare Condition Known As Acquired Methemoglobinemia
#39
The Human Body Stripped Of Fat, Muscle And Bone Tissue, With Just The Vasculature Preserved And Exposed In A Process Of Plastination!!
#40
Tight Situation! Boa Constrictor In The Emergency Room
Fire Singer 5 months ago
Ok so not saying I would know what else to do, but I don't know that my first thought would be to go to an emergency room for this just because I wouldn't think the staff would be trained for it. I'd maybe try animal control first, followed by ER if I needed it for my hand. Could just be me though!
#41
Spontaneous Hyphema
#42
Severe Frostbite In Extreme Altitude Climber (Mt. Everest)
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Yeah, and if you die up there, they leave your corpse there. It's actually too expensive and risky to the lives of others, even the professionals, to bring your body down from Everest.
#43
Organic Solvent Chemical Burns
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
More information: "A 33-year-old man presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with chemical burns on his hands from handling paint thinner without using gloves. He had approximately 7 h of direct contact of Klean-Strip® (W.M. Barr & Company, Memphis, TN) on his bilateral hands. Klean-Strip is comprised primarily of Stoddard solvent, a petroleum-derived mixture of organic hydrocarbons. The patient reported severe burning pain throughout his palms and fingers. The palmar aspects of his hands were discolored and waxy, with a leather-like texture, particularly at his distal fingertips. Burns with organic solvents such as hydrocarbons cause a corrosive dissolution of lipids, unlike thermal burns, which cause local tissue denaturation and release of local inflammatory mediators due to an exothermic reaction."
#44
My Xl Wrist Vein
#45
Docs Couldn’t Find A Single Vein In My Arms For IV, So They Struck My Jugular
Beth Wheeler 5 months ago
OUCH! Let them know you're a hard stick and to call the IV team. They also have this little ultrasound thing that makes the veins look bright green. That's how I found out last year that I have a lot of valves in my arms when I went for a hand surgery last year
#46
Wife Said My Feet “Barely Look Human”
Robin Roper 5 months ago
In our family, we call these rice paddy feet; my husband is Japanese and has really wide feet.
#47
Wrinkly, Brittle Nails
#48
Thigh Slices From A Morbidly Obese Person And A Slightly Obese Person
#49
Nail Biting All My Life
#50
Best Friend’s Dad’s Arm After Boxing Injury
Ace 5 months ago
Looks like a haematoma some time, possibly weeks, after injury. Trapped blood in the muscle take a long time to drain through body tissues. Had similar myself. Learned after the first one that I really should have had medical treatment to drain the lump on my hip, as the blood can sometime turn gangrenous; would also have removed swelling and healed much more quickly.
#51
A 26-Year-Old Female Presented To The Emergency Department After Accidentally Swallowing A Toothbrush, Which She Had Inserted Into Her Mouth To Induce Vomiting
She reports a 6-month history of bulimia nervosa. The toothbrush was successfully retrieved via upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Debby Keir 5 months ago
Unfortunately it's taken some lining with it, and this young lady is going to have the sore throat from h*ll.
#52
An MRI View You Won’t See Every Day
#53
Onychogryphosis Is A Nail Disorder That Affects The Growth Of The Nail Plate
The nail undergoes thickening, elongation and increased curvature and has an unusual yellow-brown, opaque appearance resembling a ram's horn.
#54
Attempted S**cide With A Small Crossbow. Patient Survived But Lost An Eye. The Arrow Apparently Didn't Penetrate The Posterior Orbital Wall Thus Not Reaching The Brain
#55
Petechiae Due To Low Platelets In 28 Y/O Leukemia Patient
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Good news: OPs is now cancer-free! https://www.reddit.com/r/BeforeandAfter/comments/1l4znd1/cancer_no_cancer_4_months_between_pics/
#56
Nails Coming Off After Hfmd
Add New Image
What do you think ?
K. LNU 5 months ago
Did you see the one where the soldier was chewing on a blasting cap? So many safety briefings after that came out.
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Georgia Ireland 4 months ago
I used to work in a hospital and nursing home, and I loved watching medical shows as a kid. This sort of thing has interested me most of my life.
Shelli Aderman 5 months ago
I can handle any and all. Except my own! If I see a body part out of place, or my own blood? I pass out! 🤣
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
It's funny, I've been able to handle some gnarly things IRL (I was the only one in my family who could handle changing my dad's gastro feeding tube every 4 weeks) and when I have gotten severely injured in the past, I look down and I'm like "Oh man, REALLY? Come ON!" like it's more frustrating and annoying than anything else XD But the times I get blood drawn I have to look away or I feel faint! I can look down at heavily-bleeding injuries on my own body (have experienced several) and my blood doesn't squick me out then, but look at it going into a little tube? NOPE for some reason! XD Our brains are funny things!
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K. LNU 5 months ago
Did you see the one where the soldier was chewing on a blasting cap? So many safety briefings after that came out.
Load More Replies... Georgia Ireland 4 months ago
I used to work in a hospital and nursing home, and I loved watching medical shows as a kid. This sort of thing has interested me most of my life.
Shelli Aderman 5 months ago
I can handle any and all. Except my own! If I see a body part out of place, or my own blood? I pass out! 🤣
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
It's funny, I've been able to handle some gnarly things IRL (I was the only one in my family who could handle changing my dad's gastro feeding tube every 4 weeks) and when I have gotten severely injured in the past, I look down and I'm like "Oh man, REALLY? Come ON!" like it's more frustrating and annoying than anything else XD But the times I get blood drawn I have to look away or I feel faint! I can look down at heavily-bleeding injuries on my own body (have experienced several) and my blood doesn't squick me out then, but look at it going into a little tube? NOPE for some reason! XD Our brains are funny things!
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