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Not everyone is suited to be a doctor. Those who are an excellent fit for the job likely have ample knowledge, an unwavering purpose to help those in need, and enough immunity to withstand anything that may make any other person feel extremely squeamish and shaken to the core.
To better understand these disturbing occupational hazards, people with firsthand experience provided their insights in a recent Reddit thread. Most commenters are medical professionals, but a few were just unfortunate enough to see these scarring images.
If you’re easily nauseated, be forewarned. Many of these stories are pretty graphic.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My father-in-law (FIL) was a Red Cross trauma surgeon during the Vietnam war. One day the locals brought in a villager with a live RPG round sticking out of his side. No one wanted to operate on him. FIL sent the OR staff out of the tent, so it was just him and the patient. Then he piled a wall of sandbags with a small opening around the villager, and used surgical tongs to extract the RPG round while sitting on the other side of the sandbags. Then he sewed the guy back up. He was fine.
FIL is about 5’2” and so mild mannered. You’d never guess it but he’s a secret bada*s.
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#2
Not me but my dad is a surgeon. Once in the ER a guy came in and he had a tennis ball in his a*s so my dad had to get it out and after that he asked politely how it got there and the guy said he was playing tennis and my dad responded “well next time face the ball”.
#3
Coiled up iv tubing in the bladder that was calcified in a big bladder stone. Cambodian patient who had been tortured by khmer rouge years earlier. The tube was used in the torture to fill his bladder to bursting.
After he was released they left the tube inside.
#4
Doctor here. The best case that I have ever seen was that of an internship colleague. The patient was obviously psychiatric and managed to introduce a cylindrical cutlery basket full of spoons, forks and knives up his r****m. At the radiography, the cutlery was clustered in such a way that we didn't recognized the objects, but they were definitely metallic. The content was only revealed in the surgery.
Edit: just to be clear, the patient was not my colleague. He was my colleague's patient.
#5
I saw this while I was volunteering as a premed in the Emergency room. Lady came in after having stuck a hairspray (without cap) can in her r****m. She acted like she didn’t know what was going on or how it got there (husband was an ecclesiastical leader I guess and she was embarrassed). What prompted her to come in was that she started to have this sensation that when she would lean or shift her weight a certain way, she could hear/feel a “shhhhhhhhh-ing” sound down low. She “thought it would be good to get checked out”. I wasn’t in the room when they asked her to demonstrate, but one of the nurses later confirmed the shhhhing (super clear with a stethoscope apparently).
#6
In my emergency medicine rotation, I saw a little boy who had put the headlight from his Lego Iron Man’s motorbike up his nose and got it stuck up there. I removed it and we had a talk about how Iron Man says that heroes have to be sensible and not put things up their noses. All the while, I was contemplating the multitude of substances that Tony Stark has undoubtedly put up his nose.
#7
Not a doctor but used to work with a guy who’s son was a doctor in the states. He told us a story of a lady that walked into the ER one day complaining of pain and irritation under her belly folds. The doctor rummaged around for a bit and started pulling out 1-2inch long splinters of wood from between the fat folds. When asked “excuse me ma’am, we’re finding some pieces of wood in here, do you know how they would have gotten there?” The lady replied “oh, that will be from my husband. Whenever he f***s me he sticks a piece of plywood in there so he can lift everything at once to make it easier”. Needless to say I did not each the rest of my lunch that day.
#8
RN here. We had a guy go thru surgery because he shoved a glowstick up his urethra and it went up too far and he couldn't get it out. We all took bets on what color it was.
It was pink.
#9
I had a patient who likes swallowing steak knives whole, to the point that the gastroenterologist told them that if they kept doing that, they would not remove it next time.
They swallowed a nail clipper last time I saw them.
#10
Not a doctor but i was in the medical bay when i was in Civil Air Patrol. We had a guy come in with his wife (both memebers of CAP). His wife says there has been blood in his underwear she noticed while washing his clothes. He insitis he was fine. After seperating the 2 and hearing the stories this is what the guy says. "Dont tell my wife. Ive been having an afair and i have an angel with an approximent 12 inch wingspan all the way in my b*m. We tried gettinf it out but we only snapped off one of the wings." Still to this day dont know how he fit a 12 inch plus shape up his a*s but it did end in a divorce and the guy had to wear a colostomy bag the rest of his life.
#11
I had this patient who grew a giant tumor on his thigh in a matter of 3-4 weeks but he ignored it and kept going to work. The thing was about the size of a volleyball. I asked him how he got his pants over it to go to work. He just laughed and said, “why do people keep asking me that?”
The worst thing was an ignored breast cancer. Lady could have been completely cured but she ignored her doctor’s advice and would do only holistic medicine. By the time she came in a couple years later, it looked like somebody had dropped a grenade on her breast and it smelled like death with pus pouring out of it. She couldn’t put her arm down either because it spread to her lymph nodes and made her arm humongous.
Also, I saw a guy who ignored a testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is usually highly curable and almost never involves both testicles. But this guy wouldn’t go to the doctor. When he finally came in, one of his testicles had grown to the size of two soft balls and was as hard as a rock.
#12
I think the top weirdest thing was a self harmer we had sutured, who picked the stitches and smuggled a plastic spoon in there for a few hours. We found it before they were admitted to psych.
#13
Just graduated medical school! I can answer this question!!!! I saw a CT scan of a dude who shoved a butternut squash up his rear. Said he fell on it.
Beth Wheeler 1 day ago
I used to work in a Urology Clinic and I had to look at the OR note to see why a man needed to come to us. This idiot decided to get high a stuff a zucchini up his a*s. The ER docs couldn't get it out and called Labor and Delivery to bring 1 of the suctions they use on babies sometimes, it didn't work because it kept moving to p instead of down. They had to take him to the PR and cut him stem to stern to get it out. He had to go to Urology to have his catheter removed. I was laughing so hard that I was crying and choking while reading it. If I was his wife I would have divorced his stupid a*s.
#14
Not a dr, but a nurse...please do not stick anything in your cast to scratch an itch. A patient lost a pen cap between their cast and forearm. The patient didn't realize it until it was time to get the cast cut off....and her skin had grown over the cap. She needed to be cut open to remove the foreign object.
#15
About a dozen barbie doll heads that caused an intestinal blockage. Guy swallows them all day long as a fe**sh. When he excretes them he washes them so he can reswallow them.
#16
I’m not a doctor but my friend found fifteen magnets in someone’s body my friend does autopsy’s that was the official cause of death.
#17
ICU nurse here. We had an inmate come in to the unit and started complaining of not being able to hear. Come to find out, the jail was too loud, so he'd shoved his ENTIRE supper of chicken and noodles in his ears to muffle the sound.
I was stunned by how much he fit in there.
Huddo's sister 1 day ago
How did it even fit? did he like force them in with a pencil or something?
#18
Not a doctor, worked with doctors. The two weirdest things were a feather in a three month old and a scalpel that was left in after surgery, did nothing to the function of the body, was discovered by accident over an unrelated MRI. The feather in the baby, which sprouted out of her neck, was introduced from inside the mother. Nobody really knows for sure how.
#19
Many years ago I was an x-ray tech. Had a lady come in with pain in her heel. When I took the xrays, I assumed it was a heel spur like I'd seen many times. I toss the films on the light box and there was a frickin' sewing needle deeply embedded. And it wasn't a small one either as it was 2-3 inches long. She claimed to have no recollection of ever stepping on it.
Mel in Georgia 1 day ago
I had had a small (1/4 inch) bump on my foot for as long as I could remember - since childhood. Never bothered me, never thought about it. Then for some reason it became red and irritated. Went to see the doctor about it and after examining it she decided to take a biopsy right then and there. After numbing and cutting the area she pulled out an intact sliver of wood. We were both surprised! Amazing how a foreign object can benignly sit in the body for years and years.
#20
Peds RN, we have a psych patient who keeps eating foreign objects, her favorite being glass. When she gets admitted we have to take everything out of her room now because she’s eaten our lightbulbs, temperature probes, pens, tacks holding up signs and miscellaneous medical equipment. Anything she can get down her throat we have to strip the room of. She has had many surgeries and complications because of her “diet”.
#21
I am a urologist so I have pulled just about anything you can imagine out of male urethras.
The wierdiest one was when I was a resident on a female however.
We were doing a cystoscopy on this patient with lots of irritative voiding symptoms. She had a presumed diagnosis of intersitital cystitis. The staff for the case was a fairly elderly doc, in his 70s.
I put the scope in and immdiatly saw a NuvaRing floating in the patients bladder. My staff doc had no idea what it was and was flabergasted.
I then asked the patient if she was using NuvaRings for birth control. She said she hadnt used them for 2 or 3 years......I had to explain it to the staff doc what it was infront of the patient.
FYI nuvarings are fairly firm, hard plastic and pretty large...
So she had litterally put a NuvaRing up her urethra 2 or 3 years before and had no idea....
It was a sonofab**ch to get out too.....
Ghostpotato 1 day ago
Hey I've wondered about that! I've used nuva rings, there is a specific section in the instructions that says to make sure it is not accidentally inserted into the urethra. I always wondered why they would add that, I can't imagine how it would even be possible but figured it must have happened since they warn about it!
#22
My wife is a doctor, and she has seen a fair amount. But there is one recurring patient that really stands out. He first came into the trauma bay with a light bulb that had shattered up there. It was a rough surgery to get everything out. He then showed up again about 3 months later with a slightly cracked light bulb. They were able to remove it without any breakage. Than about 6 moths later he showed up again with a snow globe, like a big one. Not sure he is learning his lesson.
#23
Not a doctor but I remember a friend from my teenage years showing me an X-ray of his mother’s womb with a pair of sharp scissors in there. Apparently when he was born, the doctors had to do a c-section and the surgeon accidentally left some scissors in there and sewed her up. I don’t remember how long it took for them to realize it was still in there, but she obviously had to have surgery to get it out.
Beth Wheeler 1 day ago
They lost count of the instruments. Where had my C-Sections there were 2 nurses that counted everything
#24
Not a doctor, but my older brother put a snail in his ear when he was a child. Had to go to the ER to get it removed. (Unfortunate for him, as the ER times were as likely as slow as said snail.).
#25
Pulled a lego out of someone’s lung once.
#26
Obligatory not me, but my sister in law always tells the story of a construction worker who swallowed several long nails. The remarkable part was that he ended up being totally fine, never had any symptoms, and ended up pooping them out.
Boris Long-Johnson 1 day ago
If they’d have given him beans to make him gassy they could use him as a backup nailgun.
#27
I'm not a doctor but I did train in medicine. One day I was tasked on going through old x-rays, ones that were so old they weren't needed any more, but we had to look through them for good clinical examples that could be used in lectures and teaching scenarios.
Well, we found a g*****n cyborg. A head, side view, with a g*****n computer in the middle! You could see the circuitry as plain as day. Must have been about 5cm square.
We showed this x-ray around to everyone in the department (well, the staff) but no one had any idea what could possibly be going on.
Bear in mind this was 25 years ago and the x-rays were all at least 10 years old or more. Pacemakers were only about 30 years old, brain implants were still a twinkle in some neurosurgeons eye, not even a possability back then.
Of course we got cyborg, and skynet/the terminator, and a time traveller, but no helpful answers.
Finally, about a week later, we got our answer. It's a hearing aid. The x-ray technation had obviously forgot to have the patient remove it before taking the image. I hope it didn't damage the poor patients hearing aid.
And yes, the image is still striking and was kept for teaching purposes, or more likely, humour purposes. (don't worry, all patient information was blacked out before being seen by students).
#28
ER Nurse:
Butt Stuff: Curtain rod
Not Butt Stuff: A psych pt who, over time, swallowed 9 steak knives. There were many other things swallowed (eye glasses, pens, spoons, etc.). The knives were intense though. Her abdomen was covered in huge scars from all of her surgeries.
#29
My paramedic friend once had a geriatric woman whose toothbrush had become embedded in her cheek while brushing. I've seen the photos. It's not pretty.
#30
A glass jar Yankee candle in patient's r****m. Still have the X-ray pic of that. Still my favorite story.
Note: this post originally had 55 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Poll Question
What quality do you think is most important for being a doctor?
Knowledge
Compassion
Strong stomach
Problem-solving skills
What do you think ?
KrazyChiMama 1 day ago
This! They have handles to help you retrieve them and come in all sizes for your enjoyment too!
Warren Peece 1 day ago (edited)
I was working in a hospital emergency department when a couple (man and woman) were brought in by ambulance - with both of them on the same gurney. The couple had been having séx when the man suffered ruptured erectile tissue, and his penîs swelled up like a water balloon from internal bleeding. He was hopelessly stuck in the woman. The doctor had to use a long needle to remove the blood while myself and two other staff held the couple in a certain position so the doctor could reach the right spot.
Cerridwn d'Wyse 2 hours ago
Nurse here Elderly woman presented to the ED with "roots in her box* She had a vaginal prolapse and had used potato to shove it back where it belongs. It's sprouted
KrazyChiMama 1 day ago
This! They have handles to help you retrieve them and come in all sizes for your enjoyment too!
Warren Peece 1 day ago (edited)
I was working in a hospital emergency department when a couple (man and woman) were brought in by ambulance - with both of them on the same gurney. The couple had been having séx when the man suffered ruptured erectile tissue, and his penîs swelled up like a water balloon from internal bleeding. He was hopelessly stuck in the woman. The doctor had to use a long needle to remove the blood while myself and two other staff held the couple in a certain position so the doctor could reach the right spot.
Cerridwn d'Wyse 2 hours ago
Nurse here Elderly woman presented to the ED with "roots in her box* She had a vaginal prolapse and had used potato to shove it back where it belongs. It's sprouted
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