Today’s Sharp Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
A woman who lived with an 8-centimeter (3.1-inch) pencil lodged in her brain for 55 years has had most of it removed in a complex operation in August, 2007. She is now looking forward to a life without headaches and nosebleeds and hopes to also regain her sense of smell. “When I was four years old I fell down in Dessau with a pencil in my hand. The pencil bored its way through my skin — and disappeared in my head,” Margret Wegner, 59, told the mass circulation newspaper Bild. “It was incredibly painful.” The pencil missed her optic nerve and a major artery by just millimeters. A doctor treated the wound, but no one dared to operate on her brain. She decided to have the life-threatening operation after 55 years, and it was successfully carried out by a surgeon in a Berlin hospital. Most of the pencil — six centimeters of it — was removed but the 2-centimeter-long tip has grown in so tightly that it will remain lodged in her brain.
Culled from: Spiegel Online
Generously donated by: Lady Morgana
Sundry
I suppose everyone has already heard about or seen “The Ex” knife block (of which I happen to be a proud owner). But have you seen Throwzini?
Thanks to Heathir for the suggestion.
Trinkets
Today’s Hairy Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
It may not be the most appetizing reading before a hearty holiday meal, but the New England Journal of Medicine devoted part of its Thanksgiving, 2007 issue to a giant hairball — and not the feline kind. Doctors say this hairball removed from a woman’s stomach weighed 10 pounds. The prestigious journal detailed the case of a previously healthy 18-year-old woman who consulted a team of gastrointestinal specialists. She complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss. After a scan of the woman’s abdomen showed a large mass, doctors lowered a scope through her esophagus. It revealed “a large bezoar occluding nearly the entire stomach,” wrote Drs. Ronald M. Levy and Srinadh Komanduri, gastroenterologists at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. For the uninitiated, a bezoar is a hairball. “On questioning, the patient stated that she had had a habit of eating her hair for many years — a condition called trichophagia,” they wrote. “It seemed like she’d been doing this for several years,” Levy told CNN. The woman underwent surgery to remove the mass of black, curly hair, which weighed 10 pounds and measured 15 inches by 7 inches by 7 inches. Five days later, she was eating normally and was sent home. A year later, the pain and vomiting were gone, the patient had regained 20 pounds “and reports that she has stopped eating her hair.”
Culled from: CNN
Generously submitted by: Katchaya
And here’s an image of the bezoar itself. Isn’t it lovely?
Facts
In partnership with Jen of Juror2.net, I am creating a line of serial killer quote t-shirts. Here’s one of them – from the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz:
Get yours today (or one of the other exceptional designs) at the Etsy MFDJ Store!
(Edited to correct link.)
Trinkets
Though I’m anti-death penalty, I have to admit to a certain voyeuristic envy for this guy’s job:
Texas reporter’s seen unrivaled number of U.S. executions
News
Today’s Gentle Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The manacles were one of the “gentler tortures” used in 16th century Scotland. Standing on a stool, the accused was hung by the wrists against a wall, wearing iron gauntlets that could be gradually tightened as necessary; the stool was then removed, and the accused left dangling for many hours. The sadistic Richard Topcliffe, who tortured the Jesuit Father Edmund Campion more than ten times, remarked: ‘It will be as though he were dancing a trick or figure’. When Campion was tried in Westminster Hall in 1581, he was incapable of lifting his hand to plead, and two of his fellow priests had to raise it for him.
Culled from: The History Of Torture
Facts
Who wouldn’t want a Marie Antoinette action figure, complete with pop-off head, in their collection of morbid trinkets? Not I, certainly!
Available from the one and only Archie McPhee!
Thanks to Vickie for the suggestion.
Trinkets
Here’s a handy list to help you determine if possession has become a problem (always something to keep in mind).
Has Possession Become A Problem?
Thanks to Paradox for the link.
Mirth
For those of you who have been following the Caylee Anthony murder case (you know, adorable toddler killed, allegedly, by her monstrous mother and buried in her grandparents’ yard), I recommend you read the autopsy report (as suggested by The Witch Aquarius). I can never get enough of these things. My biggest regret in life is that I won’t be able to read my own autopsy report…
Caylee Anthony Autopsy Report
News
YannaHay has a film recommendation for us:
Perfume – The Story of a Murderer (2007)
“I came across this movie by accident, but really enjoyed it. Just thought to share.”
Product Description
Based on the bestselling novel, “Perfume” is a story of an obsession so overwhelming that it leads to murder. In 18th-century France lived Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), who was born with a phenomenal sense of smell. But as his gift becomes an obsession, he strives to create the most intoxicating perfume in the world by murdering young women to capture their essence.
More film recommendations can be found at The Library Eclectica’s Fearful Footage aisle.
Library
