Friday 3 July 2009

Spontaneous amputation

There should definitely be awards for the most outlandish scientific papers. I don't mean for those that are wasteful or stupid, like the Ignobel awards or the Darwin awards, but just for the strange ones.

My award of the day goes to this paper
http://www.ejbjs.org/cgi/reprint/47/7/1401.pdf ,which is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

It describes a case where a large vein in a man's leg became blocked, causing the leg to become swollen, numb and, eventually, gangrenous. Ordinarily, once gangrene set in, one would have expected him to die without urgent medical attention. In his case, he recovered in bed at his sisters house for 15 months, until finally, the diseased leg just dropped off...

The best bit of the story however, is that even this drastic turn of events did not prompt him to seek medical help. Instead, he called a vicar for advice about what to do with broken off bit of leg. Fortunately, the vicar suggested a doctor might be appropriate.

*BEWARE- the paper contains one VERY gory image *

Thursday 2 July 2009

Cheering up Bird number 4- Wild Pheasant


Wild Pheasant, UK

The powerful red cheeks of male pheasants look very garish and absurd- like something from a Venetian masked ball.....