TMI Friday: Using a Bottle for a Throttle

Today we once again must again take a look at men who take incredible risks in order to find new and grotesque methods of masturbation. You have been warned.

This week, the object of their fascination is.. the plastic bottle. 

In the grand scheme of things, at least the plastic bottles don't have spinning blades inside them, so in theory, these individuals are better off than those who turn on the vacuum cleaner for stimulation.

The first case we shall be examining comes from 2004, when a 27 year old man in India was admitted to hospital with a peculiar problem. His penis was stuck in a hard plastic bottle. There apparently were no attempts at an excuse, just the simple explanation that he had attempted to use it for masturbation. They called in the hospital carpenter to cut away the bottle *very* carefully using an Iron cutting saw. After 15 minutes of struggle, the bottle was removed.

In 2009, a 77 year old man in Singapore was admitted into hospital with complaints of blood in his urine, and difficulty urinating. Initially he wasn't forthcoming about his case history, for reasons that will soon become clear. You see, one week previously he had pushed a 1.5 litre bottle over his genitals, and got stuck. Over the next 3 days, he managed to cut away most of the bottle. But he still couldn't remove the neck of the bottle, despite attempts at lubricating it with soap. The surgeons managed to pry off the bottle neck with scissors, and they managed to repair some of the damage, but he died 3 days after admission.

The third case we will look at came from 2010 , and also occurred in India. A 47 year old man came in 14 hours after attempting to masturbate himself with a plastic bottle. That in itself is not the hair raising part of this case. We are told that the bottle neck was placed in such a position that it was impossible to access with a normal cutting device. So what did they use ? A soldering iron. Think about that. They mitigated the heat somewhat through adding cold saline in order to regulate the temperature. Still, it's not exactly a pleasant thought.

The final case I'll be talking about involves a 58 year old man. His flatmate called an ambulance for him after recognising that he was behaving oddly. But he sent them away, claiming that he didn't have anything wrong with him. Two days later his flatmate found him dead. The autopsy revealed that his genitals had been constricted with a plastic bottleneck. This bottleneck had cut off the circulation to this region, and allowing parts of his genitals to begin decaying. This lead to bacteria entering the bloodstream, and eventually caused multiple organ failure.

So how could these people stick their members into such small openings, and then get stuck. In order to answer this, we must examine how the penis works. Essentially it is a balloon filled with blood.  To become erect, arteries dilate in order to increase blood flow. However, if the veins that take the blood out of the penis are constricted, by say, a plastic bottleneck, then blood takes longer to escape, and so it swells up and gets stuck. This can actually be very dangerous. when the circulation is cut off, it can become gangrenous and in severe cases of penile strangulation, the only option is amputation. this is not even the worst case scenario, as we have seen, if this is not dealt with as soon as possible, then there is a risk of death.

 Penile strangulation appears to have a higher body count than men who stick their appendages into the whirling blades of a vacuum cleaner !

References

Jain S., Gupta A., Singh T., Aggarwal N., Sharma S. & Jain S. (2004). Penile strangulation by a hard plastic bottle : A case report, Indian Journal of Surgery, 66 (3) 

Ooi C.K., Goh H.K., Chong K.T. & Lim G.H. Penile strangulation: report of two unusual cases., Singapore medical journal, PMID: 19296009

Shamrao Kumbhar U., Dasharathimurumu & Bhargavpak (2011). Acute penile incarceration injury caused by a plastic bottle neck., International Journal of Biological & Medical Research, 2 (4) 

Morentin B., Biritxinaga B. & Crespo L. (2011). Penile strangulation: report of a fatal case., The American journal of forensic medicine and pathology, PMID: 22101437