You don’t have to be lonely, but you don’t have to kill

Nobody likes to spend Friday night alone, but occasionally it happens. It happens even more frequently when your interests lie in para-medical research or DIY surgery, because frankly nobody wants to risk falling asleep next to you. Well it’s the modern era, fool! Stop looking for fresh bodies and just buy a high-quality medical mannequin!

I’m not talking about those cut-off-at-the-thighs torso models with puzzle piece organs, although they’re undeniably entertaining. No, nowadays you can find incredibly detailed, interactive, and medically specific models to squeal over study thoughtfully.

Want to practice delivering a baby? There’s a model for that. Want to have three buddies over for a CPR singalong? Try the four-headed dummy. Do you enjoy inserting catheters? First of all, you’re a perv, and second of all, here’s the model you want.

My favorites, though, are the veterinary models: dogs and cats that you can practice trauma emergencies on. For less than $100 you can get a giant patch of dog skin with a giant flea on it.

Sure, they’re expensive. But sometimes that’s the price you pay for being a creepy weirdo nobody wants to be friends with.

Aspen Multi-System Corp
Rescue Critters

March 5, 2010 | Filed Under Decor, Medical, Shopping | View Comments 

When warts attack

This is Dede. He used to be called the Tree Man, because the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) went apeshit throughout his body due to a rare genetic disorder that prevented his immune system from fighting back. Back in 2007 it was so severe that it was actually life threatening, as you can see from the photo below.

Read more

February 15, 2010 | Filed Under Medical, People, Strange But True | View Comments 

Polish beekeeper found alive in his coffin

A last-minute request by Josef Guzy’s wife to retrieve a necklace from her dead husband’s coffin was the only thing that saved the 76-year-old beekeeper from being buried alive a few days ago. The man had collapsed on his farm and was pronounced dead after a doctor observed that he’d had no pulse, wasn’t breathing, and had cooled to the touch. Whatever had shut down apparently started up again later, though, because by the time his temporary widow asked for the keepsake he was alive again. Then he ate her brains.

No, he didn’t eat her brains. He did bring the undertaker a pot of honey as a thank-you gift, though. And then while the undertaker was Pooh-bearing that honey, he ate his brains. Probably.

All brain eating aside, the lesson here is obvious: if you’re going to have a traditional burial, request that your pockets are filled with keepsakes and jewelry that you know your relatives will want, and leave clues about all this stuff scattered on notes about the house. Hopefully that will keep them opening and closing your coffin long enough for you to wake up, should you simply be resting.

“Undertaker opens coffin, finds pulse” [UPI]

January 28, 2010 | Filed Under Funerals, Medical, News, Strange But True | View Comments 

Worm therapy: get yourself dosed up with some parasites on purpose

ms-tapeworm-on-oprahI don’t know if “worm therapy” has any legitimate medical underpinnings, but hey, doctors love to sling leeches and handfuls of maggots around operating rooms willy-nilly these days, so maybe it’s time to invite the hookworms and tapeworms in to the party.

Hookworms cost $2400. The “dosing” is 10-24 worms. Suggested treatments:

The conditions that are actively being researched are Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Asthma, Allergies, Coeliac disease, Eczema, Multiple Sclerosis, and Psoriasis. There are theoretical reasons to believe that Atherosclerosis, Depression, Grave’s disease, Irritable bowel syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Sjorgen’s syndrome, Lupus, Migraine, Non-Ulcer Dyspepsia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasic Arthritis and Diabetes type I might respond.

Tapeworms are more of cosmetic thing. They seem to treat far fewer illnesses–the site only lists asthma and allergies–but that’s because the real purpose is weight loss. Fortunately, a tapeworm dosing is only $1400, so if you start saving now you’ll be able to afford one before you have to go to that wedding at the end of summer. I’m pretty sure, thought, that if you want to go the DIY route you can just eat some raw pork.

wormtherapy.com
(Photo: nayrb7)

June 1, 2009 | Filed Under Medical | View Comments 

Photos of meat. Human meat.

The Sterile Eye is a Norwegian medical photographer’s personal blog, and as such the entries cover whatever is on the guy’s mind that day. But among the miscellania are entries where the man posts photos and stills from the videos he shoots, and they’re extremely up close and personal glimpses of the human body.

October 22, 2008 | Filed Under Medical, Photo Album, Strange But True | View Comments 

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