Circumcision Knife, 1770s - Ritual circumcision is performed around the world in varying extents and for varying reasons, but few instruments used in the process are as intimidating as this European knife from the 18th century.
Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz.
In this photo, the skull is being reflected away from the brain. The dura remains tightly attached the inside (underside) of the skull. Note the “bridging veins” that connect the dura mater to the underlying meninges/brain.
Circumcision Knife - circa 1770
Ritual circumcision is performed around the world in varying extents and for varying reasons, but few instruments used in the process are as intimidating as this European knife from the 18th century.
An 18-year-old woman from Illinois who once had a compulsion to eat her hair - a condition called trichophagia - had a 4.5 kg hairball removed from her stomach.
Giving Birth to a Mummy
Zahra Aboutalib, from Morocco, delivered a child she’d been carrying for almost half a century. This shocking yet fascinating story began in 1955 when Zahra went into labor. She was rushed to a hospital, but after watching a woman dying on the operation table during a Caesarean section, Zahra fled back in her small village outside Casablanca. After the pains were gone and the baby stopped kicking, Zahra considered him a “sleeping baby”. “Sleeping babies” are, according to Moroccan folk belief, babies that can live inside a woman’s womb to protect her honor. When Zahra was 75, the excruciating pains occurred again. Doctors performed an ultrasound test and discovered that her “sleeping child” was actually an ectopic pregnancy. What is even more amazing is how Zahra survived and how the dead fetus was accepted by the body just like another organ. Generally, this doesn’t happen. If not discovered in time, the growing fetus will eventually strain and burst the organ that contains it. Under these circumstances, the mother has few surviving chances. After nearly five hours, the surgeons successfully removed Zahra’s calcified fetus.
Stone babies, lithopedions, are an extremely rare medical phenomenon. According to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, only 290 cases of stone babies have been documented.
Amputees from WWI.
27 year old Chinese man Zhang Chuanqiu was chained to a cowshed with shackles in 2005 and by the time he was discovered and freed, skin of his arm grew over shackles to a point that he had to go to a hospital to have it removed. Surgeons are now looking at ways to save Zhang Chuanqiu’s hand though they’re faced with many challenges. He was chained to a cowshed over a dispute about a loan to build his house.
Vintage Facial Reconstruction.