Facts about medicine. The most interesting fact about medicine: features and description

As in any other field, in medical science you can find various things that are interesting to know not only for medical professionals, but also for a wide range of users. It has existed for thousands of years and during this period numerous amazing facts about medicine have accumulated. You can find out some of them right now.

From the history of medical science

In Ancient Greece, electric stingrays were used to treat patients, namely to relieve pain during surgery or childbirth: the stingray produced an electric charge on the patient's chest and the person fell into stupor.

Surprisingly, the first plastic surgeries in medicine date back to the 6th century. BC e. During this period in India, criminals had their noses cut off as punishment, and Indian doctors took skin from the patient’s forehead to restore the sense of smell.

In the days of Babylon, doctors paid very dearly for their professional mistakes: if they treated a patient incorrectly, their hands were cut off.

One of Peter I’s many hobbies was medical science, or rather dentistry, so he usually took a set of appropriate instruments everywhere. Only people rarely came to him with complaints of toothache, since he recognized only one method of treatment - removing the tooth from the root. At the same time, the king did not particularly understand whether he was removing the right tooth.

In 1898, Bayer researchers developed a new medicine that relieved coughs, had an analgesic effect, and additionally stimulated an emotional surge. It was for these latter “heroic” properties that it was given the name “heroin”. An amazing fact, but in German medicine until 1971 it was used as a drug for children’s coughs and an anesthetic and was freely sold in pharmacies.

King George V of England died at 11:55 pm on January 20, 1936, in a coma associated with severe bronchitis. But 50 years later, an amazing fact was discovered: the royal physician B. Dawson “helped” the patient with a medically lethal dose of cocaine with morphine, so that the time of death was before midnight. In this case, the sad news ended up in the morning edition of the Times, which enjoyed greater authority than the daytime edition.

Incredible cases

An amazing story that happened in the 19th century. with the bomber Phineas Gage, is still considered a miracle in medicine. In 1848, while working, he incorrectly calculated the burning time of the cord and an explosion occurred 20 m from him, as a result of which a metal rod more than 1 m long pierced the man’s skull. Doctors were able to remove it, but Gage was left paralyzed on the left side of his face and headaches were frequent. This case also helped doctors study the impact of brain injuries on mental and physical health.

The name of Gertrude Lewandowski from Chicago is inscribed in the history of medicine in connection with the longest operation, which lasted a total of 96 hours (February 4-8, 1951). It was associated with the removal of a giant ovarian cyst. After surgery, Gertrude's weight decreased from 280 to 140 kg.

In 2007, window cleaner Alciedes Moreno experienced a unique medical incident: while doing work, he fell from the 47th floor and managed to survive. He had to undergo 16 operations (on his legs, arms, spine, ribs), but despite the doctors’ disappointing forecasts, the man returned to a full life. To understand how amazing this story of survival is, it is worth knowing that according to statistics, half of people die when falling from the 4th floor, and in the case of a fall from the 10th floor, the mortality rate is almost 100%.

A fourteen-year-old girl from South Carolina, D'zana Simmons, had to live without a heart for 4 months. She initially received a donor heart, but her body rejected it, and she had to be put on a heart-lung machine while waiting for another suitable organ. Only 4 months later, a second transplantation was performed, which turned out to be more successful.

Another amazing story from the field of medicine happened with a fisherman from Norway, Jan Revsdal, whose heart did not beat for 4 hours. The man fell overboard of the ship during winter fishing, so his body temperature dropped due to hypothermia to 24 ° C. To stabilize the patient's condition, doctors had to connect him to a heart-lung machine.

Racer David Parley was able to survive after a severe overload (179.8 G), which was associated with a major car accident during the competition: the braking distance of his car was 66 m, and the speed dropped sharply from 173 km/h to 0. After the accident, David had 29 bone fractures, 3 dislocations and 6 cardiac arrests. Doctors had to assemble the racer piece by piece, but they successfully completed this task.

Traditionally, records are associated with the field of sports, but medicine has its own list of records, which often border between life and death and this makes them seem even more amazing facts:

• 2.35 kg is the weight of the heaviest foreign object removed from the human stomach. It was a hairball that was removed in 1895 from the body of a 20-year-old girl suffering from a rare disorder associated with compulsive hair swallowing.
• Doctors removed 2,533 foreign objects, including 947 safety pins, from the body of a 42-year-old woman who complained to doctors of constant abdominal pain.
• 1080 l is the maximum amount of blood used for transfusion during surgery. This volume was transfused to Warren Jirich from Chicago, who was diagnosed with hemophilia during heart surgery.
• 970 operations were performed on the American Charles Jensen from Chester in 1954-1994. All of them were associated with the removal of various tumors.
• Samuel Davidson from Great Britain received 78,900 insulin injections in his lifetime.
• 111 years and 105 days is the record age of a patient who successfully underwent surgery. It was at this age that James Henry Brett Jr. I had to have surgery on my hip, which took place on November 7, 1960.
• Kilner took 565,939 tablets over a 21-year period (1967-1988) as part of post-operative treatment for pancreatic cancer.
• James Harrison from Australia donated blood 1000 times. Doctors discovered an amazing fact: his blood plasma contains rare antibodies that help solve the problem of Rh conflict in mother and child and save the newborn from severe blood diseases. According to some estimates, Harrison's dedication helped save more than 2.4 million babies.
• 84 days is the biggest difference between the birth of children in multiple pregnancies. American Pegi Lunn gave birth to her first girl on November 11, 1995, and her second boy on February 2, 1996.
• 46.5°C is the maximum human body temperature recorded in medicine. It was with Willie Jones from the USA, who in 1980 was admitted to one of the Atlanta hospitals. An amazing fact: after 24 days the man was discharged completely healthy.
• 8 out of 10 large joints were replaced with artificial ones for American Norma Wickwire, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Between 1979 and 1989, she underwent surgery to replace two hips, knees, shoulders, a left ankle, and a right elbow.
• 1510 mg/100 ml is a record level of alcohol in the blood, which was recorded in a conscious 24-year-old girl. Surprisingly, after 2 days she was discharged from the hospital, despite the fact that her level was 3 times higher than the level considered fatal in medicine.

The appendix has long been considered a vestigial organ. Surprisingly, in some countries they even practiced removing it in childhood to prevent possible inflammation of appendicitis in the future. Only recently has it been established that the appendix is ​​important for the immune system, since it serves as a kind of repository for beneficial microorganisms. If for various reasons the balance of natural microflora in the intestines is disturbed, then it is due to reserves from the appendix that normal values ​​are restored. But this function cannot be called critically important, because in the world of medicine drugs have been developed to restore intestinal microflora.

A blood test is usually taken from the ring finger, since it is least involved in the work compared to the middle and index fingers. There is thinner skin and fewer nerve endings, which minimizes the pain from the puncture. The use of the little finger, like the thumb, is not recommended due to their close connection with the wrist: if an infection occurs, it will quickly spread to the wrist.

Kuru is the rarest disease in the world, which can only develop in members of the aboriginal Fore tribe from New Guinea. This is a very dangerous disease with an incubation period of up to 30 years, for which today the world of medicine has not yet come up with a treatment, so the patient faces a 100% fatal outcome. The surprising fact lies in the supposed cause of the Kuru infection. According to one of the most popular versions, this is a special form of cannibalism associated with the consumption of human brains.

Allergy to water is another rare disorder, for which no more than 40 cases have been described in the world. This unusual type of allergy (water urticaria) is caused by the fact that water on the body causes itchy swelling, blisters and red marks. For such people, the usual shower becomes a painful torture, and trying to drink tea, coffee or clean water causes a burning sensation and swelling of the throat. Due to its rarity, this amazing disease has not yet been studied in medicine, so doctors cannot understand the reasons for its occurrence.

You can talk about medicine a lot, for a long time and in many different ways. Thanks to modern technologies, many diseases that were previously considered hopeless are successfully treated today. The plague alone wiped out almost half of Europe in the Middle Ages, and today it has been safely forgotten. It is interesting that the roots of healing originated in the distant centuries BC, and the knowledge possessed by the healers of Ancient Rome, China and Egypt has not lost its relevance in the age of high technology.

Interesting facts about ancient Chinese medicine

Many methods of treatment and prevention of various diseases used in Ancient China remain relevant today. These include sound therapy, acupuncture, fire therapy, as well as herbal healing and acupressure.

The prototypes of modern pharmacies also “come” from China. In those days, these were so-called trading enterprises, where norms and rules for the dispensing of medical drugs were developed. The approach to paying doctors was also unusual. The doctor’s income did not depend on the number of sick and cured patients, but on the contrary - he was paid if the client was healthy.

The doctors who served the Chinese emperors could pay not only with excommunication from the court, but also with their lives for making an incorrect diagnosis.

Here are some more interesting facts that have flown through the centuries and have survived to this day:

Hygienic masks, which epidemiologists recommend wearing during outbreaks of seasonal ARVI and influenza, have roots in Ancient Egypt. Of course, in those days they had not yet learned how to make gauze, but canvas bags filled with a mixture of medicinal herbs were actually tied around the neck. When inhaled, herbal aromas entered the respiratory tract and naturally stimulated the immune system.

As a result of numerous archaeological excavations, many fossilized needles of various sizes were discovered, which once again confirms the practice of acupuncture by ancient Chinese physicians. Even four hundred years ago, healers knew that if you squeeze the hole above the upper lip, you can bring a person back from fainting. And you can easily get rid of insomnia by inserting a needle into the bases of the first and second fingers from the back of the palm.

The basics of vaccination were known and actively used in China back in the 10th century AD. To vaccinate a healthy child, an abscess from a sick person was taken and placed in the nostril of the person being vaccinated. The instrument used was a thin tube through which pockmark was blown into the nose. It was believed that to acquire immunity, one “dose” was enough.

Ancient Chinese doctors were not allowed to examine naked women. To understand where the patient’s pain was, the doctor carried a female ivory figurine with him to the appointment. It was on it that the patient showed where and what was bothering her.

Medicine of Ancient Egypt

The patroness of medicine was the goddess Sekhmet, who had the head of a lioness. It is interesting that for help, patients did not go to a specific doctor, but to the temple to which the doctor was “attached”. The cost of treatment was also set by the priests of the temple and contributed to the common treasury.

1. Such an indispensable item in the first aid kit as an enema was invented by doctors of Ancient Egypt. In his manuscripts, Herodotus wrote that every self-respecting Egyptian did fasting days once a month, cleansing the stomach with laxatives and emptying the intestines with enemas.
2. The ancient Egyptians, knowing absolutely nothing about antibiotics and the technology for their production, on a hunch, treated infectious diseases with moldy food and even moldy soil.
3. Modern pathologists, after a thorough analysis of the remains of one of the most famous pharaohs, Tutankhamun, concluded that the eighteen-year-old boy died of tuberculosis.
4. The high level of development of ancient Greek medicine is confirmed by numerous archaeological finds. In particular, scientists discovered the remains of broken bones, which were skillfully compared and fused together in the correct order. During the excavations, various surgical instruments made of bronze and silver were also found. Some temples have preserved large-scale wall paintings depicting medical tables and the surgeons themselves busy at work.

And it’s not worth talking about how successful the Egyptians were in the science of embalming. Otherwise, archaeologists and historians would not have had such a large “springboard” for scientific research on the mummies of pharaohs and their families.

Amazing things about medicine

On the Internet you can find a lot of useful and informative articles on the topic of both modern and ancient medicine. There are even entire online encyclopedias for children, in which complex terms and technologies are described in simple, understandable language. Although, to be honest, many adults are also interested in reading such collections for general development.

For example, the following facts cannot but surprise:

• If you “shoot” blood under the pressure existing in the body, the stream will fly 10 meters forward.
• As people age, they lose taste sensitivity. Thus, scientists have found that by the age of 60, almost half of the taste buds stop responding to food.
• Harmless at first glance, caries is the most common infectious disease in the world. No ARVI, flu, tonsillitis, pneumonia and other “popular” diseases can hold a candle to the dental “scoundrel”.

If you are used to criticizing the healthcare system and do not trust doctors, preferring to diagnose yourself, then we advise you to think about it. Previously, doctors did not wash their hands at all, and during operations all wounds were cauterized with boiling oil.

Sushruta: plastic surgeon of ancient India.
The medicine of Ancient India was advanced in many areas, including in the field of plastic surgery. Around the 6th–5th centuries. BC e. (exact dates are unknown) on the territory of a powerful ancient state lived the doctor Sushruta, whom many consider the father of plastic surgery. According to some sources, he specialized in rhinoplasty (restoration of a missing nose or correction of parts of it). Also credited to his hand is the treatise Sushruta Samhita, which contains all the knowledge of Ancient India in the field of medicine (more than 1,000 diseases in total).

Ephraim McDowell: The President's Savior.

This American doctor became known to the world thanks to two cases. The first was the successful removal of stones from the bladder of a 17-year-old named James Polk. Yes, yes, that’s right, it’s not a coincidence: McDowell saved the life of not just anyone, but the future president of the United States! The second case was no less interesting: McDowell was able to remove a 20-foot tumor on the ovary of a woman who everyone thought was pregnant. At the time of the operation she was 47 years old. Jane Crawford, a happy patient of a brilliant doctor, lived to be 79 years old.

Claudius Galen: what is in my body for you?

This name was quite famous in Ancient Greece. Most of the physician's scientific works were devoted to the structure of the human body. Galen wrote his treatises based on what he was able to discover during the autopsy of dead animals. It is clear that his conclusions and conclusions were not always accurate and correct, but it was his opinion that doctors used for more than one century. Even after many centuries, his works remain one of the most significant publications on anatomy. By the way, Galen was the imperial personal physician for a long time.

Larrey Jean-Dominique: first aid on the battlefield.

A Frenchman named Jean-Dominique Larrey is considered the first military surgeon, an outstanding innovator of military field surgery. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​placing special first-aid post tents directly on the battlefield. Before this, all wounded soldiers were taken to hospitals, which were often quite far from the front line, which is why the lion's share of the victims died on the road. It was Larrey who came up with a system for transporting wounded soldiers called “flying hospitals” (these were special horse-drawn carriages that were used only for these purposes). At one time he was the chief surgeon of Napoleon's army.

Ignaz Semmelweis: wash your hands with soap!

The modern world is grateful to this Hungarian obstetrician, at least for the fact that he taught doctors to wash their hands and became one of the founders of asepsis. The fact is that it was Semmelweis who established that there is a direct connection between infection on the hands and childbed fever. He insisted that doctors wash their hands thoroughly before childbirth, which reduced the incidence of puerperal fever from 18 to 1.

George Heyward: first amputation under anesthesia

William Morton invented ether anesthesia back in 1846, after which doctors began to look for ways to use it. This process dragged on for a long time, because Morton did not want to share with others the secret of the main active component of anesthesia. Soon Morton had to admit that his invention was based on the use of sulfuric ether. This allowed George Gayward to successfully amputate the leg of 21-year-old patient Alice Mohan (she had bone tuberculosis).

Jean Civial: the first invasive surgery.

In ancient times and until the beginning of the 19th century, kidney stones were removed by lithotomy. In this case, the doctor makes a surgical incision and removes the entire stone. It is clear that this procedure was quite painful (there was no talk of any anesthesia), so many patients died right on the operating table. Jean Civial made a huge breakthrough in surgery with the invention of the lithotripter. Using this instrument, it was possible to crush the patient’s kidney stones and remove them through the urethra.

Ambroise Pare: down with pouring boiling oil on wounds!

Ambroise Pare (court physician) at one time brought surgery to a new level. Previously, all operations were performed using cauterization with boiling oil. Since no one dreamed of anesthesia in those years, one can only imagine what hellish torment the patients endured, often dying right under the hands of the surgeon. When Pare ran out of sunflower oil during one of his operations, he had to somehow get out of the situation. He created a tincture from available materials: rose oil, egg yolks and turpentine. Paré could not even imagine that his remedy would be so effective and, moreover, not at all painful. Pare also went down in medical history as the first doctor to suggest applying bandages after amputation of limbs.

Richard Lower: first blood transfusion.

Oxford physician Richard Lower specialized in blood transfusions. In 1665, he performed the first successful blood transfusion on animals, and two years later, in 1667, he performed a sheep blood transfusion to a certain Arthur Coga, who even received 20 shillings for the operation! The volunteer patient had serious mental problems, and Lower was confident that a blood transfusion would help cope with them. When this did not happen, Lower's ideas were rejected. More than a century passed before people again resorted to blood transfusions.

The incredible operation of Louis XIV

The most famous ruler of France, King Louis XIV, had serious health problems. He suffered from headaches, gout, periostitis and (according to some historians) diabetes. Later, the great ruler was “awarded” with another disease - anal fistula. The king tried everything (even enemas and poultices), all methods were in vain. Then the situation was saved by the king's hairdresser Charles-Francois Felix. This savvy man came up with an ingenious method to save the king from suffering. Before using the revolutionary method of solving an unpleasant problem using a scraper and a reamer on Louis XIV, a similar operation was tried on 75 volunteers from French prisons. After everything was successful for the king, many courtiers asked to have the same operation performed on them as on Louis. From that moment on, society began to regard surgery as an important branch of medicine.

As in any other field of activity, in medicine you can find many things that will be of interest not only to a narrow circle of specialists, but also to a wide audience. Such attributes include, for example, unusual cases, funny stories, intriguing figures, rare pathologies, unique operations and much more. We invite you to get acquainted with several interesting medical facts.

1. The highest body temperature recorded was on July 10, 1980, in 52-year-old Willie Jones, who suffered heatstroke. He was admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where a record was recorded: a body temperature of 46.5°C. The patient was discharged from the hospital only after 24 days. There is also a mirror “achievement”: on February 23, 1994, a 2-year-old Canadian girl who spent 6 hours in the cold recorded the world’s lowest body temperature of 14.2 °C.

2. Many famous drugs were originally considered medicine. For example, heroin was introduced to the market in 1898 by the German company Bayer AG as a remedy for children's coughs and remained in this status for 15 years. Sigmund Freud personally “tested” the properties of cocaine on himself and began to promote it as a cure for everything: depression, sexual disorders, syphilis and alcoholism. In 1880, cocaine was freely sold to combat colds, neuralgia, headaches and insomnia. It's funny, but around the same time, Coca-Cola was used as a remedy for stomach pain.

3. 2,533 foreign bodies, including 947 safety pins, were discovered in June 1927 in the stomach of a 42-year-old woman who suffered from compulsive swallowing. She only complained of mild abdominal pain. Even before this incident, on March 30, 1895, in one of the UK hospitals, the heaviest object ever removed from the stomach was removed from a human body. Hairball weighing 2.35 kg. was in the stomach of a 20-year-old girl who also suffered from compulsive swallowing.

4. In English, a positive pregnancy test result is referred to as “the rabbit died,” since the first such tests actually involved the killing of furry animals. A method for determining pregnancy by the presence of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin in the urine was invented in 1927, but at that time they did not yet know how to study the properties of urine. The resulting urine was injected into female rabbits, mice and frogs, after which they were killed and, based on changes in the “victim’s” ovaries, it was determined whether the woman would soon become a mother or not.

5. 74-year-old Australian James Harrison has donated blood almost 1,000 times in his life. Antibodies in his rare blood type help newborns with severe anemia survive. In total, thanks to Harrison's donation, according to rough estimates, more than 2 million babies were saved.

6. 1080 liters of donor blood were transfused to hemophiliac Warren Jirich during heart surgery in a Chicago clinic in 1970. That's almost 15 full baths.

7. The most common disease in the world is dental caries, in some areas of the world it affects 100% of the population. In the UK, it is estimated that 13% of people lose their teeth before the age of 21. But the rarest disease in the world is called “kuru” or “laughing disease.” Only one New Guinea tribe is susceptible to it, and the incubation period is up to 30 years. However, each new case leads to death. The word "kuru" in the Fore language has two meanings - "trembling" and "damage". The disease spread through ritual cannibalism.

8. Carrier pigeons are not used today to deliver letters, but they successfully cope with other tasks. For example, in remote areas of England and France, birds deliver blood samples to hospitals. And drug traffickers launch entire flocks of pigeons to deliver heroin from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

9. The spell “abracadabra” (lat. abracadabra) was first mentioned in the writings of Serenus Sammonik, who lived in the 2nd century AD. and was the physician of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (according to other sources: Caracalla). According to the records, this word could cure hay fever. The spell had to be written down on the amulet in a column 11 times, each time subtracting the last letter to form a triangle (base up). Such a recording was supposed to gradually weaken the power of the evil spirit and contribute to the recovery of the patient.

10. According to statistics, there are 25% more back injuries and 33% more heart attacks on Mondays. It is on this day that we all should be especially careful.

Sometimes it can work wonders. Injuries, illnesses and various disorders always have survival rate, indicating the likelihood of whether a person will survive.

For example, when falling from a height of 150 meters, the mortality rate is 99.9 percent.

Here is a small percentage of cases where people managed to survive against all odds. Such cases in medicine are called nothing less than miracles, and although they are not that common, they do happen.

1. A metal rod pierced through a man’s head

A case of survival Phineas Gage(Phineas Gage), which occurred back in the 19th century, is still considered a miracle. At the time, this incident was not only incredible, but also helped doctors understand how brain injuries affect physical and mental health.

In 1848, Gage was working as a construction worker on the railroad when an explosion caused a metal rod more than 1 meter long passed through his skull. The doctors managed to pull out the rod, but the man experienced paralysis on the left side of his face and certain mental changes occurred.

2. A teenager lived for 4 months without a heart.

At 14 years old D"Jeanne Simmons(D"Zhana Simmons) had a weak and enlarged heart and needed a transplant.

Unfortunately, the donor heart did not take root and was removed. This meant that The girl had to live without a heart for almost four months. Instead of a heart, blood was pumped by two artificial blood pumps. However, she survived and 118 days later she underwent a second successful heart transplant.

3. The girl's body, which was supported by stiletto heels

After suffering multiple injuries in a car accident in 2009, the bones of 17-year-old Katrina Burgess were collected using 11 titanium studs, which are attached to the neck, spine, leg, as well as screws to support the neck.

After five months of operations, she was able to make an almost complete recovery and signed a contract with a modeling agency.

Survival Cases

4The Woman Survived Beheading

In January 2007 Shannon Malloy(Shannon Malloy) was in a car accident, resulting in her skull being severed from her spine. Fortunately, the spine itself was practically undamaged, but the woman remembers how she lost control of her head. This type of injury is called " internal decapitation".

The woman was taken to the hospital, where 9 screws were screwed into her head and neck. A device called a "halo" was attached to hold the head in place. Although Shannon had difficulty swallowing afterward and suffered damage to her optic nerve, she slowly recovered.

5. A woman rose from the dead

An incredible incident occurred with a 59-year-old woman from West Virginia in the USA. Val Thomas, who survived two heart attacks, had no electromagnetic brain waves and no pulse for 17 hours, and rigor mortis set in.

While her organs were being supported by a ventilator and her family discussed organ donation, Val woke up and began talking. Moreover, when the doctors decided to examine her, they found out that everything was fine with her.

6. Two twins survived after their parents had to choose one.

When couples Shannon and Mike Gimbel(Shannon, Mike Gimbel) reported that they would have to kill one of the twins in order for the other to survive, which became a real nightmare for the parents.

The twins had a rare disorder called feto-fetal transfusion syndrome, in which children are connected by blood vessels and one twin literally takes the life of the other. If you leave two twins, both have a 90 percent risk of death.

At first the Gimbels decided to part with the weak twin, but an alternative appeared. Doctors used lasers to burn through the blood vessels connecting the twins, separating them. Both twin girls survived and were born two months later..

7. A man survived a fall from a height of 150 meters

In 2007, window cleaner Alciedes Moreno(Alciedes Moreno) fell from the 47th floor while I was at work. Unfortunately, his brother, who also fell, did not survive.

However, Moreno, although he suffered serious injuries, including a collapsed lung and blood clots in the brain, miraculously survived, clinging to an aluminum platform. To understand how rare this survival event is, it is worth knowing that half the people who fall from the 4th floor die, and almost everyone from the 10th floor dies.

Moreno underwent 16 operations, but after six months he was able to walk.

Medical stories

8. A man’s vision was restored with the help of a tooth.

Builder Martin Jones(Martin Jones) remained after the accident blind for 12 years.

But thanks to an unusual operation, he was able to regain his sight. The procedure involved removing the man's tooth and using it as a lens holder. Tooth inserted into eye, and Jones now has near-perfect vision in his right eye.

Thanks to the operation, the man was able to see his wife Jill, whom he married after the accident, for the first time.

9. The girl’s brain was stabilized with superglue

Girl Ella-Grace Honeyman(Ella-Grace Honeyman) has been suffering from a rare blood vessel disease - aneurysm - since birth. In this case, blood could seep into her brain from holes in the vessels.

To combat this, doctors resorted to a procedure using a kind of medical superglue to patch up these holes. Although the procedure did not completely solve the problem, the girl will be able to live a normal life for a long time.

10. A man survived after half his body was cut off

In 1995, the Chinese Peng Shulina(Peng Shulin) was cut in half when he was hit by a truck. The height of the remaining half of the body was 66 cm.

He underwent several surgeries in which skin from his face was grafted onto the rest of his body. Man was able not only to survive, but began to walk thanks to specially designed prostheses with bionic legs. Peng continually strengthens his upper body and is able to walk with the help of prosthetics.