Science writer at Gizmodo and pug aficionado elsewhere. But in at least one case, health officials reported that a person had gotten sick last December by “purposely eating a slug on a dare.”. 5 strange, rare, and fascinating medical conditions Written by Maria Cohut, Ph.D. on October 19, 2018 — Fact checked by Paula Field We include … But the sheer mass of flies she encountered that day must have given them ample time to infect her with worm larvae. Rachael Rettner - Senior Writer But as it turns out, the man was telling the truth — he had a rare condition in which his gut microbes brewed their own booze. Here’s a list of some of the weirdest, and thankfully very rare, medical conditions known to man. The condition can be triggered by emotional or physical stress. This is interesting. The teen was reportedly a "fussy eater," and at age 14, he was found to have low levels of vitamin B12. Warning: the linked article is not for the squeamish. The next day, she was diagnosed with broken-heart syndrome, a condition in which the heart's main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, becomes enlarged and weakened so that it doesn't pump properly. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? Nowhere is that more apparent than in the bizarre medical cases that made the news this year. Their 35-year-old male patient ended up in the emergency room with a Grade IV erection—an absolute real medical term—that had lasted for nine days. Not only did the home remedy not appear to work, but his last attempt left him needing immediate hospitalization to treat the arm he had inadvertently infected. But the man’s predicament was the result of him having fallen off his moped and bruising the area between his junk and anus, commonly called the “taint.” The injury ruptured nearby blood vessels, which caused blood to pool around his genitals and created new connections that redirected the blood to his penis. 2019 has truly been the year of too much.Nowhere is that more apparent than in the bizarre medical cases that made the news this year. A month after her encounter with the face flies, her eyes were constantly watering, leading her to look more closely with a pen light and magnifying mirror. It wasn’t until early 2017, when a doctor spotted “stretch mark” lesions during an examination, that the true cause of his suffering was uncovered: His brain had been infected by a kind of bacteria spread by cats and other animals called Bartonella. Ultimately, the boy was able to fully recover physically and mentally. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the bizarre medical cases that made the news this year. 15 Bizarre Medical Cases That Will Straight Up Baffle You. The 60-year-old woman was attending a wedding when she ate "a large amount of wasabi," which she thought was avocado, according to the report, published Sept. 20 in the journal BMJ Case Reports. 8 The healthy kidney removed by mistake Finally, other rats eat the slugs and the cycle begins anew. Junk food diets aren't just bad for your waistline and your heart, they can also be bad for your eyes. Afterward, the man immediately felt relief from the pain, according to the report, published June 20 in The Journal of Emergency Medicine. A man's blood was so thick with fat, it turned a milky color. Um, I apologize in advance. In other words, his penis was turning to bone. 5 big medical court cases that made a difference this year. In May, doctors in the UK reported the sort of story that could only be funny years after it happened to you. Despite the incident, the rest of the man's surgery went well, and doctors successfully repaired the tear. The Weirdest Medical Cases of 2019. Typically, this is a complete accident. It appears to be the first reported cases of bloodletting to treat high levels of triglycerides, or hypertriglyceridemia, the authors said. There was a problem. The man and his back did get better, though once his pain dissipated, he discharged himself from the hospital, leaving behind a mystery that might never be solved. “My first actual thought was, ‘Wow, fascinating. Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Indeed, the specific, usually mild infection he had gotten is often known as cat scratch fever. The man underwent a pelvic X-ray after a fall, and doctors discovered there was "ossification" along the entire shaft of his penis, according to a report of the case, published in the September issue of the journal Urology Case Reports. But such reports can sometimes help doctors better understand rare diseases or spot unusual signs of common conditions. And then, a new strange and completely bizarre case like these is recorded, urging medical researchers to completely rethink what they know of the human body and the way it functions. But it can signal a urinary tract infection. Ossification happens when calcium salts build up in soft tissues, leading to bone formation. For one 63-year-old man, this happened in the penis. There are few combinations of words that are viscerally repellant as “a cloud of face flies.” But alas, that’s the reality that Dianne Travers-Gustafson, a retired medical anthropologist and public health researcher from Nebraska, had to confront while jogging along a California trail in February 2018. You might not think of the iris — the colored part of the eye — as something that can just "collapse." By age 15, he developed hearing loss and vision problems, and by 17, he was "legally blind" in both eyes. Over a period of 18 months, the once-healthy boy spiraled into depression, suicidal ideation, and psychosis. Wasabi and avocado are both popular, green foods, but you probably don't want to confuse one with the other given their drastically different tastes and levels of spiciness.