TMI Friday: When you've literrally had your Chips

The victim of this weeks TMI friday didn't really do anything wrong. In fact, this is less of a TMI Friday than a FML Friday, but it's an odd story that perhaps you'll find interesting, and perhaps learn from.
Our story begins with a 42-year old gym teacher who had hurt her foot. She didn't exactly know what could have caused the pain, but the point was that it was there. She had been enduring it  for four weeks, and her doctor had given her painkillers to help her get over the pain.
But it wasn't enough, but there are other things people can do to relieve pain, such as wrapping something very cold in a towel and applying it to the afflicted area. It usually works pretty well.
That was what this lady did. She wrapped a bag of frozen chips in a towel and rested it upon her aching feet. But then she fell asleep.
When she awoke forty minutes later, she found that the pain had subsided, but that her foot had now become swollen and red. The next day, the foot became discoloured, and her doctor prescribed her a course of antibiotics. The day after, she was in the emergency room with what was described in the paper as "third degree frostbite".
Frostbite causes blood vessels to constrict, which helps the body to retain heat, but reduces the blood flow to the extremities. Your extremities need blood, so not getting it can be pretty bad for them. When it gets cold enough for layers of skin to freeze, the real trouble begins, because this can cause the cells to die off, and can lead to blisters.  In this particular case, the cold compress froze the nerves and muscles below the skin, causing them to die off.
This is why physicians recommend that you always try to put some layers of fabric between you and the cold surface,and that you should never put on a cold compress for more than 30 minutes. Also, Chips are for eating.


Graham C.A. Frozen chips: an unusual cause of severe frostbite injury, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 34 (5) 382-383. DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.34.5.382

TMI Friday: Frippery Furrows Fanny

Jewellery, body piercing and other such frippery are usually harmless. A ring here, a piercing there. Humans have been using these accoutrements for millenia without problems. at least, problems they'll admit to.

In this weeks case, we look at a young lady who repeatedly suffered from vaginal bleeding after sex. There was nothing wrong with her menstrual cycles, and there were no signs of bleeding outside of sex. 

She had been suffering with this problem for seven months.

Further examination of the lady's delicate area revealed abrasions and lacerations. 

She then admitted that her boyfriend wore penile jewellery of the ‘Prince Albert’ type. This information shed light on the aetiology of the post-coital bleeding as well as the bizarre vaginal findings

With this revealed, the doctors furnished the woman with the rather obvious advice that she should get her boyfriend to remove his penile adornments before the engaged in copulation*.


Esen U.I. & Orife S. (2006). Penile jewellery: a cause of post-coital bleeding, Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 26 (5) 483-484. DOI: 10.1080/01443610600766884
*I got a thesaurus for Christmas.  Apologies.

TMI Friday: How long ?

This weeks victim/perpetrator showed up to Hirosaki hospital with blood in his urine. The doctors spotted that he had a foreign body that had wormed it's way up into his bladder, but they couldn't quite work out what it was. An x-ray revealed five cm diameter blob, but how could such a large object get up there in the first place ?
The patient revealed the answer. His suffering began when he inserted a long vinyl tube up his urethra.
How long had it been there ?
Two years. 
How long was it ?
One and a half metres.
I don't know if the Guinness book of world records recognises the accomplishments of people who stuff things up their own schlongs, but if they did, I suspect the gentleman in this study could be a world record holder.
Just don't try to break his record at home. Or in public.

 Imai A., Suzuki Y., Hashimoto Y., Sasaki A., Saitoh H. & Ohyama C. (2011). A Very Long Foreign Body in the Bladder, Advances in Urology, 2011 1-2. DOI: 10.1155/2011/323197

TMI Friday: The Grinch Syndrome

Last week, I blogged about the "Santa Claus" Syndrome. Taking inspiration from the "Worst ever Christmas story ever" from the "Gremlins" film, I clawed through the medical case literature to see whether there was any truth behind this story.
After much googling, I tracked down a paper entitled "The Santa Claus Syndrome", which appeared to answer all of my questions, but was locked behind a pay-wall. So I posted the awesome abstract of the paper and left it at that.
But I must have been a good little boy this year, because Santa* left me a present underneath my Christmas tree. A copy of the full paper !
So gather 'round children, you are in for a gruesome tale.

Our story begins with a 17 year old burglar who saw a tempting target of opportunity. It was in the early morning hours, the sun had not risen, and the store was empty. The doors were locked, but our enterprising thief noticed that the owners had left their chimney unguarded. I imagine a Grinch like smile crossing his face, and him rubbing his palms together. For he would not be going down that chimney to give presents, like Santa Claus. The plan was sheer elegance in its simplicity.

The paramedics found him fourteen hours later, jammed in the chimney, his hand caught in a heat vent.
You might be wondering what happens to someone when they get stuck in a chimney. I am here to give you the facts in all of their gory details.
They managed to get the burglar out of the chimney and he was immediately transported to a burns unit. His nostrils and tongue were coated with soot, and he had first and second degree burns all over his chest, abdomen and lower body. But it wasn't just the burns that were the problem for this young gentleman.
He was also covered in pressure sores. These occur at points on the body where bone is close to the surface of the skin (like your elbows, or your knees).  When you put pressure on these "bony prominences", the skin, the bone squeezes and tears at the body tissue it's pressing against.
 Effectively, the burglar's skin was been worn away, with the chimney acting as the pestle, and his very bones acting as the mortar.
The tissue around the burglars knee had already been severely damaged, and had become "Necrotic", and his hand had become infected and "gangrenous". But these weren't even his biggest problems.
His biggest problems was that there really wasn't much oxygen in that cramped chimney shaft. The oxygen levels in his blood were dangerously low. They intubated him, but his condition just kept getting worse.
He was soon suffering from "Acute respiratory distress", which happens to the cells of the lung that have suffered from so much injury that the immune system kicks into overdrive. In order to get as many immune cells as possible into the lungs, the blood vessels entering the lungs become "leaky". They leak fluid into the lungs as well as inflammatory cells, essentially flooding the lung. It's not unlike drowning.
The physicians prescribed steroids in the hope that they would bring this under control, as well as giving him antibiotics for his infection and intravenous fluid to keep him hydrated.
Yet it still got worse. The burns he had sustained, combined with the severe pressure sores and the gangrene had lead to his muscles breaking down. All muscles contain a compound known as myoglobin, which is like haemoglobin in that it stores oxygen, but only to be used for the muscles. Whilst it is useful, it is also very poisonous to the kidneys if a large amount of it enters the blood stream.
The burglars muscles had been damaged to the point that they were now leaking myoglobin into his blood, and his kidneys were now shutting down. The doctors put him on dialysis to take the pressure off the kidneys.
But his gangrene had now effectively "mummified" the patients hand, leaving it shrivelled, dried out and dead. The surgeons were forced to amputate his whole arm to prevent the spread of the gangrene.
Various parts of his "lower extremities" suffered from the burglar having been stuck so long in an upright position. The blood had flowed down to his legs under the pull of gravity, raising the pressure in his lower limbs, giving him "Compartment Syndrome".  The surgeons treated this by cutting the affected areas open so that the pressure can be relieved.
But all of this was for nought, because on the twelfth day after admission, the patient suffered from cardiac arrest and died.

The physicians who had attended this unfortunate ill fated burglar recognised that actually, people get stuck in chimneys more often than you would think. There were a number of cases reported in newspapers of people getting stuck in chimneys during burglaries, or in the process of performing pranks, many of them with fatal consequences. So the researchers devised the "Santa Claus Syndrome". These are series of specific symptoms for other physicians to watch out for if they need to treat someone who had been stuck in a chimney, so that they would have enough preparation to save their patient.
This paper was published in 1994 , and should have been a warning for us all. But housebreakers are still dying from getting stuck in chimneys.
It should be clear now that only Santa Claus is able to enter a chimney with his magic. The poor grinch is probably still stuck in some abandoned chimney in Whoville, legs swollen like melons,  skin crackling and popping from the heat, and desperately inhaling lungfuls of soot and ash.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !

Boglioli L. & Taff M. (1995). The Santa Claus Syndrome' Entrapment in Chimneys, Journal of Forensic Sciences, 40 (3) 499-500. DOI:
*or an interested reader of the blog, who I'm assuming wishes to remain nameless, but I wasn't really very clear on that.

An Unpleasant Pheasant

Winter is open season for pheasant hunting. Families and friends come together to bond over the hunt. Dogs are released into the underbrush to scare up a few of the birds into the gunsights of the shooters.

But there are occasions when the prey can turn the tables on their predators, to spit their last breath at them in defiance. 

Our story regards a man, who was trying to impress his wife with his shooting. She was sat behind him, watching him as he shot at panicked pheasants. Her husband managed to hit one low flying pheasant as it was headed towards them. 

Although the pheasant had died, the laws of momentum allowed it to maintain it's trajectory. Had it been alive, it may have been able to manoeuvre out the obstacle that intersected with the aforementioned trajectory. Thus, it hit that object square on at full speed. That object was the man's wife with enough force to burst her spleen.

Enjoy your Christmas meal everybody !

Wilkinson M.C., Klein G., Cornell M. & Rainsbury R.M. (1987). The pheasant's revenge: an unusual zoonotic injury., BMJ, 295 (6613) 1659-1659. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.295.6613.1659

TMI Friday: The Santa Claus Syndrome

The Journal of Forensic Sciences has one article that I've been attempting to dig out with whatever resources I can muster, but all I could find was the abstract. Thus, I present it to you in it's full form now, until such time as I can find the full journal article and furnish you with the details.

In recent years, there have been sporadic reports in the lay press of individuals stuck in chimneys primarily during burglary attempts. Most of these individuals suffered from suffocation or soot inhalation. Because of the similarities between this form of breaking and entering and Santa Claus' traditional entrance into homes on Christmas Eve, we define the “Santa Claus Syndrome” as postural (positional) asphyxia, inhalational injuries and body burns, and/or complications related to compartment syndrome due to entrapment in chimneys. We report a case of a man who became trapped in a chimney during a burglary attempt and died a delayed death due to postural asphyxia associated with inhalational and burn injuries and anterior compartment syndrome. An analysis of this unusual case is presented. Exhaustional and postural asphyxia, compartment syndromes, and confined space-hypoxia syndrome are also discussed.

 Basically, if Santa Claus isn't dead already, he is probably some kind of horribly injured zombie.
 G'night kids !

Boglioli L. & Taff M. (1995). The Santa Claus Syndrome' Entrapment in Chimneys, Journal of Forensic Sciences, 40 (3) 499-500. DOI:

TMI Friday: Rectal Repositories !

On today's TMI Friday, we are once again contemplating colon contents, this time looking at the stories of four people who've used their rectums as repositories for interesting objects. I shall recount those takes to you now.

Case 1. For want of a Wine cabinet

We kick off this series of cases with a 52 year old man who stumbled into the emergency room with a real pain in the ass. He owned up to the emergency room staff that he had a habit of placing objects in his own rectum for sexual gratification. His latest attempt involved a wine glass. Unfortunately the wind glass got turned around in his rectum, making it impossible for him to remove it. After two days, he finally took himself to hospital. All of the doctor attempts at pulling the glass out failed, and eventually he had to go into surgery.

They opened up his abdomen and squeezed out of the colon via a surgical incision.

Case 2. Ball in the buttocks

Our next victim had managed to insert a ball into their anus. At first, the doctors tried giving him a hefty dose of laxatives. When this didn't work they tried to pull the ball out with an endoscope, but the tiny pincers on it couldn't get any purchase on the ball. In the end, they had to put the patient under general anaesthesia and scoop out the ball with two sets of forceps. This was successful, and the patient could go home the next day.

Case 3. Bottling it

 The victim (and I guess perpetrator) in this case had a history of inserting objects up his arse for sexual pleasure. The staff couldn't get any purchase on the object just by going through the anus. They had to perform surgery, which revealed that the offending object was an eight centimetre wide bottle.

Case 4. Design Flaw

One must assume that the people who design vibrators try to ensure that the don't get lost in whatever orifice they are inserted in. That would be a key safety feature, unless they thought that their customers first thought after vaginally or anally engorging the vibrator would be to buy another one. Repeat Sales !

In this final case, we have a gentleman who had suffered from that exact problem during sex with his partner. The vibrator was to slippery to grip with endoscopic forceps, and so the patient had to go into surgery to get it out. If only there were easy holds for endoscopic forceps designed into vibrators, it would save on surgery. Think about it vibrator manufacturers ! 

Sangar P., Henry G. & Sood S. (2013). Foreign bodies in the rectum: report of a case series and review of the literature, Sri Lanka Journal of Surgery, 31 (2) DOI: 10.4038/sljs.v31i2.5960

TMI Friday: The worst way to be caught dead

There are many things that we all do in our private time when no-one can possibly see us. Things that could potentially embarrass us. Like farting yourself a warm spot in bed. Or rearranging ones testicles to ensure that they don't undergo the dreaded "Testicle Torsion Injury". Or perhaps ordering a whole bucket of Choc-Chip Ice cream to yourself. But no-one would want to be found dead in bed with half a bucket of melted ice cream smeared on ones face whilst having one hand frozen mid scratch and the dreadful aroma of your farts presiding over the affair.

Today's TMI Friday was simply asking for this fate.

There is a sexual practice known alliteratively as "autoerotic asphyxiation". The idea behind this practice is that suffocating at the point of climax is meant to somehow improve the experience. But it can be dangerous, especially if the person engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation is doing it alone, and as a result we will no doubt encounter this practice in the future.

There are a number of ways to induce asphyxiation. The subject of today's topic decided to use a plastic bag to help improve his masturbatory experience. He set up a complex series of luggage rack straps to control the degree of asphyxiation he experienced, but some how it all went wrong.

But it get's worse. Here is the full description of how he was found.

A case is reported of a 36-year-old male, found dead in his locked room, lying on a bed, dressed in his mother's clothes, with a plastic bag over his head, hands tied and with a barrel wooden cork in his rectum. Two pornographic magazines were found on a chair near the bed, so that the deceased could see them well. 

Atanasijević T., Jovanović A.A., Nikolić S., Popović V. & Jasović-Gasić M. (2009). Accidental death due to complete autoerotic asphyxia associated with transvestic fetishism and anal self-stimulation - case report., Psychiatria Danubina, PMID: 19556957

TMI Friday: Telephone support

When things go wrong, often we turn to the humble telephone to help us out. Whether we turn to it to call for services found in the yellow pages, family, friends and the authorities when an emergency strikes. So when the subject of this weeks TMI Friday was faced with a problem he could not solve, he too turned to the telephone.

He had unfortunately "Lost his erections" after suffering a heart attack. Instead of opting for the usual impotence medications, he discovered another way of coping. He used his telephone to find his erections again.

He threaded telephone wire up his urethra to give himself a solid enough erection to allow him to masturbate. He did this for three years before running into any problems. One day, the telephone wire just got stuck. When he tried to pull it out, all he got was blood, and soon he lost control of his bladder.

When he eventually got to hospital, a X ray revealed that the telephone wire had coiled inside his bladder. The doctors managed to successfully pull it out with much difficulty and a heavy dose of local anaesthetic.

Trehan R.K., Haroon A., Memon S. & Turner D. (2007). Successful removal of a telephone cable, a foreign body through the urethra into the bladder: a case report, Journal of Medical Case Reports, 1 (1) 153. DOI: 10.1186/1752-1947-1-153

TMI Friday: A Shocking Discovery

You should always be careful with electricity, a fact that is perfectly illustrated in this weeks TMI Friday. Today we find yet another story of a poor soul who recklessly endangered their life during the course of masturbation.

He lived in a country mining town in Australia, and had last been seen drinking at a bar. No-one knew he'd be dead within three days. We don't exactly know the circumstances of his death, save from what could be deduced from the state of his corpse.

It seems that before he died, he decided to do some experimentation with electricity. 

He took the cord from one of his electrical appliances, and cut away the protective rubber around them to expose the wires. In any plug cord (In most countries) there are three wires. The live wire, the neutral wire and the earth wire. The live wire delivers the electricity, the neutral wire carries it away, and the earth wire diverts electricity to a safe place in the event of a fault.

The man had no use for the earth wire, so he tucked it back inside its sheath. He linked the neutral wire to his chest. He hooked the live wire up to a chain and wrapped it around his dick. With everything to his satisfaction, he plugged the cord in. Sparks flew.

It is thought that after he had separated from his wife, he had taken some time to travel overseas where he discovered how to use electricity for autoerotic stimulation. But when he tried to repeat the practice in his home town, he fell foul of one major difference between Australia and other countries.

The electric voltage overseas was less than half that of the mining town (110 V as compared with 240 V throughout Australia)

Cooke C.T., Cadden G.A. & Margolius K.A. (1994). Autoerotic Deaths: Four cases, Pathology, 26 (3) 276-280. DOI: 10.1080/00313029400169631

TMI Friday: Friction Burns

When engaging in  Slicking the Willie, Molesting the monkey and Throttling the turkey, a thought may occur to the male masturbator. "If I do this too much, will it fall off ?"
So we come to the subject of today's topic. This gentleman showed up to the emergency room with a heavy fever, vomiting and muscle pain.
The patient had developed "Fournier's Gangrene" on his member. To those of you who don't know what Fournier's Gangrene is, it is a flesh eating disease which afflicts male genitalia. I probably don't have to tell you how awful it is, but you can always google image it.
How did this individual get Founrier's Gangrene ?
The doctors asked the patient.

Upon further questioning, he also endorsed severe scrotal pain and swelling and frequent masturbation with soap as a lubricant. He reported that past episodes of masturbation often resulted in recurrent penile erythema and abrasions

I am not exactly sure what the authors mean when they say that the patient "Endorsed" severe scrotal pain, but the frequent masturbation whilst using soap may have dried out his skin, and caused friction burns. These burns then got infected , and caused gangrene.
Unfortunately, the paper does not relate exactly how frequently the man masturbated before he gave himself a flesh eating disease.
But it turns out that if you do masturbate enough to give yourself friction burns, it could drop off. So ease up on the joystick jacking.

Heiner J.D., Eng K.D., Bialowas T.A. & Devita D. (2012). Fournier's Gangrene due to Masturbation in an Otherwise Healthy Male, Case Reports in Emergency Medicine, 2012 1-3. DOI: 10.1155/2012/154025

TMI Friday: Eat your Vegetables

There are a number of odd things that people do in pursuit of a sexual high, but today's story may just be the most bizarre event I've written about for TMI Friday.

It was a peaceful afternoon, when a middle aged couple heard a frantic tapping, a frantic rapping at their door. It was their neighbour, and he was in quite a lot of trouble. He was a 29 year old man, of normal build, dressed only in trousers with the waist button unfastened and desperately attempting to talk before dropping dead in front of them.
What happened to him, and why did he die ?
Perhaps an autopsy could answer these questions.

Removal of the trousers showed the penis to be semi-erect; around the base of the penis was a rubber band. On the lower abdomen and in the groin was dried, white coloured material, subsequently identified as semen.

 Okay, so now we can draw a few conclusions as to what the young man was doing before he showed up at his neighbours door. It rhymes with "Rasta-Dating". But that still doesn't explain what killed him.

However, when they opened up his throat cavity, the revealed it. The man had inhaled a whole zucchini, and suffocated as a result. His cries for help were stymied because the zucchini had blocked his airways.

Further enquiry revealed that the deceased had been married for 2 yrs at the time of his death. He was casually employed but, unlike his wife, was not working on that day. The couple grew zucchinis in their backyard garden.

Cooke C.T., Cadden G.A. & Margolius K.A. (1994). Autoerotic Deaths: Four cases, Pathology, 26 (3) 276-280. DOI: 10.1080/00313029400169631

TMI Friday: Remember, Remember

This week, fireworks will pepper the skies across England. Now, how does the old poem go ?

Remember Remember the 5th of November, 

Gunpowder treason and plot,

I know of no reason

To celebrate Gunpowder treason

By sticking fireworks 

In the place the sun shineth not !

Our story this week focuses on an electric welder who had been suffering from depression. She had made four suicide attempts towards the end of October, but the one we are most interested in is her fifth (unsuccessful) attempt.

She had bought a set of "Sky Rockets" for this attempt. These contain propellant, which allows the rocket to go into the sky, and a bursting charge to spread out and create that characteristic "Firework" pattern. The tip of the firework was around 4cm in diameter. On the night of the 4th of November, this lady decided that she wanted to go out with a bang.

Picture taken by Peripitus

She inserted the firework 5 cm into her vagina and lit it. The firework did not kill her when it exploded, in fact it did surprisingly little damage. She managed to remove some of the shell fragments herself before she went to hospital (No doubt in terrible agony). She sustained some nasty burns to her peritoneum, buttocks and genitalia. Luckily, the firework didn't pierce here abdomen, and caused surprisingly little damage to her internal organs. In fact, over the next 8 months the patient made a full recovery, and received psychiatric help.

Be safe this Guy Fawkes Night. Don't return to firework after it's lit, Always make sure you are at a safe distance from the firework, and please, please don't insert a lit firework into any of your orifices.

Weiler-Mithoff E.M., Hassall M.E. & Burd D.A.R. (1996). Burns of the female genitalia and perineum, Burns, 22 (5) 390-395. DOI: 10.1016/0305-4179(00)00149-2

TMI Friday: A Nasty Rash

Urticaria is a disease that causes rashes, and is most commonly caused by allergic reactions. However, there is one form of this disease known as "Dermatographic Urticaria" which occurs because of excessive scratching or stroking of the skin.
This weeks TMI Friday we are looking at a surprisingly unusual cause of Dermatographic Urticaria.

A 30 year-old, married male reported to the ... Department of Skin and VD (venereal disease) with a history of recurrent itching, redness and swelling on the penis 1-5 minutes after masturbation for the last three months. These lesions persisted for 4-6 hours after which they gradually disappeared of their own accord within 24 hours.

 That's right. Excessive "monkey spanking" can give you a nasty rash. These rashes only occurred after masturbation, and not during intercourse with his wife. It should be noted that he wasn't using any kind of cream or "lubrication" to aid his masturbation. One would think that our patient would stop masturbating when they developed Urticaria, and perhaps engage in more intercourse with their wife. The authors of this paper write one sentence to explain it.

... finding masturbation to be more satisfying than normal vaginal intercourse, the patient continued to masturbate.

 Patients with Urticaria and other skin disorders have been suggested to not find sex as fun as everybody else (Which is a fair cop if you are covered from head to toes in painful rashes).
You may think that using a lotion of some sort would have helped this patient, but as was pointed out in a letter to the journal, the symptoms exhibited here are similar to a disease known as "Pressure Urticaria". When pressure is applied to the skin of someone who has this disease, they will develop a rash in the manner described by the authors.

Ghiya B., Mehta R. & Bumb R. (2008). Masturbation: Can it be urticarogenic?, Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, 74 (4) 384. DOI: 10.4103/0378-6323.42904

Godse K. (2009). Urticaria and masturbation, Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, 75 (5) 516. DOI: 10.4103/0378-6323.55405

TMI Friday: Wiring up your Joystick

When a man goes into a Doctors surgery complaining of pain and uncontrolled bloody urination, there are many things that could be the cause. However, when that story appears on TMI Friday, one can make a few educated guesses. The question here is what exactly did he do to his own member, and why.

There are a number of incredibly stupid things people will do for sexual gratification, and urethral abuse is one of them. In this case, the big clue came when the doctors performed the physical examination and found a half a centimetre wide and eight centimetre long piece of copper wire protruding from the end of his penis.

apparently, this was the first time he had ever done this, so whilst he managed to get the wire in, he was having a lot of trouble getting it out.

The people of the emergency department attempted to remove it, but since king arthur wasn't available to pull the sword from the bone, they were unsuccessful. An X-ray revealed that the wire had coiled within the patient, making it very difficult to remove. They had to perform surgery to remove the full length of wire. All sixty centimetres of it.

There are some days when I don't know whether to clap or vomit. So I do both, and revel in the delicious spray as it diffracts the light to form a rainbow.

Chattopadhyay S., Das R., Panda N., Mahapatra R., Biswas R. & Jha A. (2011). LONG ELECTRIC WIRE IN URETHRA –AN UNUSUAL PARAPHILIA. CASE REPORT, Jurnalul de Chirurgie, 7 (3) 437-440. DOI:

TMI Friday: Do you even lift ?

When I googled penile fracture GIFs, this was the first result

This week in TMI Friday we look at a case study from Taiwan, in which we hear about the many strange and interesting causes of penile fracture.

In the years between 1999 and 2007, there were 13 sufferers of penile fracture reported to Mackay Memorial hospital in Taipei.

For those of you who are not aware of what penile fracture is, it generally only occurs when a penis is fully erect. In this state, it is supported by blood flooding into the corpora cavernosa. This is what causes the penis to harden.  A penile fracture occurs when an extreme force damages the corpora cavernosa , causing the blood to flood out, and for the penis to "Fracture". This fracture is frequently signalled by a cracking noise and an immediate loss of boner. It can be repaired with surgery, although four of the patients refused this treatment, instead opting for icepacks and painkillers.

The most common cause of penile fracture in this study was through violent sexual intercourse, afflicting seven patients. Three patients suffered from penile fracture due to vigorous masturbation. In one unfortunate case, the patient was sleeping, and rolled onto his erection, which was broken by his body weight.

However, the most interesting cases of penile fracture were the final two patients, who suffered their injuries whilst performing a practice known as Chiu Chiu Shen Gong. From what I've read about it, it is a specialised set of exercises devised by martial artists which allows one to lift heavy objects using only the power of one's boner. To perfect this practice no doubt requires dedication, discipline and no doubt a tolerance for pain.

When performing chiu chiu shen gong, a heavy object is lifted by a string which was looped around the penile base with or without scrotal involvement. Penile fracture occurred ........ when the heavy object was suddenly picked up using the penis

What is even more interesting is one of the patients broke their penis, not once, but on two separate occasions whilst attempting to lift heavy weights with their dong. That is dedication, and history does not relate whether they indeed became masters of boner-fu, but in my heart I hope that somewhere, out there, they are using their skills to fight crime.

Shih H.J., Lin W.C., Chan H.K., Yang S., Hsu J.M., Chen M. & Tsei W.K. (2007). Penile Fracture: Analysis of 13 Patients and a Literature Review, Journal of the Taiwan Urological Association, 18 (2) 99-101. DOI:

TMI Friday: Sometimes you shouldn't put a ring on it

"Nocturnal emissions" is the fancy scientific term for orgasms that can occur to people (usually adolescents) during sleep. They are more commonly referred to as "wet dreams", and whilst only real harm they cause comes from having to clean up the mess, they can be quite distressing.
This week, we examine the case from 1931 of a gentleman who suffered from these nocturnal emissions, and came up with a drastic method to deal with them. The man decided that the best way to stop these was to dam the source. He pulled his testicles through a tight hardened steel ring, with the hopes of strangling the source of the sperm.
Five days later, realising his mistake and failing to remove the ring with a hammer and chisel, he admitted himself into hospital. The testicle strangulation had caused fluid to pool within the sack, causing it to swell, making removal of the ring impossible. The doctors applied cold compresses, with the hope that they would cause the testicles to shrink enough to pass through the ring, but to no avail.
There was only one choice left. The doctor called the resident hospital engineer, who noted that the ring was constructed from case hardened steel, and that he would need to use his toughest buzzsaw to remove it properly.
If the prospect of having a high powered whirling blade operate mere millimetres from his delicate parts wasn't enough, the patient also had to worry about heat. The engineer thought this through, and had a solution ready, which he explained to the physician.

[The Engineer].. procured the apparatus and asked me to make arrangements for protecting the scrotum from the heat by drawing a strip of sheet asbestos through between the ring and the skin and by playing a constant stream of water over the surface that was being cut.

This was the 1930's, and no one knew how dangerous asbestos was at the time. But this wasn't the end of the patient's suffering, for there was another quirk of the procedure that the engineer had yet to explain.

[The Engineer]..also warned me that the apparatus, when working, produced a stream of sparks which would necessitate protection both for the patient and for the operator's eyes.

So it was no surprise that the doctor decided to render the patient unconscious for this procedure, which proceeded as dramatically as you might expect.

The heat generated was surprising, and the stream of sparks was projected for fully six feet. Approximately fifty minutes was taken to cut through the ring in two places so that the halves could be separated and removed.

Despite all of these risks, the engineer managed to remove the rings without doing any damage to the patients scrotum, and the patient was able to leave within a day of the ring removal.

Rooke A.B. (1931). Unusual Method of Removing a Foreign Body, British Medical Journal, 702. DOI:

TMI Friday: If you lie down with beasts, you get up with diseases

The man arrived at a hospital with severe genital lesions, infection with a disgusting cocktail of different diseases. He said that these lesions started around two months prior to his admittance to the hospital. The question arose as to how he got these lesions.

After some coaxing, the man admitted that he was involved in a few unconventional sexual encounters. Although happily married for 30 years, but the last two months had been rather eventful. I'm going to quote directly from the article.

He had inserted his penis in the cat's mouth and the cat had bitten him causing pain and tenderness. There was no bleeding or ulceration. Subsequently, there was penile injury by a chain-zipper. He subsequently had vaginal intercourse with a bitch 1- 1 / 2 months back which was followed by penile erosions, burning mic­turition and phimosis.

I don't know whether there is anything else I need to say.

  Mittal A., Shennoi S. & Kumar K. (2000). Genital lesions following bestiality , Indian Journal Dermatology Venereology Leprology, (66) 95-96. DOI:

TMI Friday: Quail in fear of fetishes !

The the Japanese quail is a plump and fluffy little creature. Some would say it is adorable, with its round physique and small stature. But this creature hides a dark and dirty secret. It is one of the few animals that can develop a sexual fetish.

Photo of a perfectly normal quail by Ingrid Taylar

The quails deviancy is one of the traits that has made it a target of great interest for scientists studying sexual fetishes.

To give a male quail a specific fetish, the researchers condition them from a young age. Usually, they do this by controlling the adolescent males first interaction with a female. For example, in one experiment, they would expose the males to a sexually receptive female alongside another female that had been artificially adorned with bright orange feathers. Males that were exposed in this way tend to be more likely to copulate with a female with bright orange feathers then males who had not been given this stimulus.

But hold on, it gets even more freaky.

The researchers repeated this experiment once more. This time, they used a slightly different stimulus than before. This time, they conditioned the quails not with a colourfully adorned female quail. This time they used a yellow pound puppy toy. They positioned the toy to mimic the posture of a female quail, and introduced it alongside a sexually receptive female quail. Although the Quails did not wantonly take advantage of the helpless stuffed animal, the researchers found that they were more likely to copulate with a female quail when this stuff toy was present.

Think about that next time your paramour demands that their favourite stuffed toy needs to be present when you "make whoopy" , you may be getting an insight into their earliest sexual experiences. If thay happen to be a quail, that is.

 Domjan M., O'Vary D. & Greene P. (1988). Conditioning of appetitive and consummatory sexual behavior in male Japanese quail., Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 50 (3) 505-519. DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1988.50-505

TMI Friday: Don't have a cow man !

We begin this week's TMI Friday with a crime scene. Let us examine the scene of the crime, and try to work out what happened.
The incident occurred on the outskirts of Rome, Italy. The body of a farmer had been found in his own yard at midnight. A calf was nearby, and more further afield there were five sheep. No doubt, these witnesses could tell a very interesting tale if they could speak.
There were some inconsistencies in the manner in which the farmer was found. The man was found wearing a shirt (that had been hitched up) and boots and nothing else.
The body was taken to Rome for closer examination. The coroner noted that there were a whole set of bruises on the body, and that in particular a there was strange U shaped bruise on the man's chest. Whatever had caused that bruise had managed to shatter the left side of the man's ribcage and lacerated his lungs, leading to death.
When neighbours were asked about the man's personality, most of them remarked that he was shy, and disliked speaking to people. He was however particularly close to his animals, in particular the calf that he had been found next to on that fateful night. He would talk to it as if it were his friend. He used to have a female calf as well, but apparently sold it out of "jealousy".
A picture begins to emerge. Let us re-examine the evidence. A farmer who is unusually close to one of his calves is found naked from the waist down next to that same calf, killed by a bruise inflicted by a hoof shaped object.
We cannot truly say for sure what that farmers intentions were when he took his pants off and approached his favourite calf. We do not know exactly why the calf would so violently kick his owner in response to whatever action the owner was attempting. After all, they were friends, weren't they ?

De Giorgio F., Polacco M., Rossi R., Lodise M. & Rainio J. (2009). Fatal blunt injuries possibly resulting from sexual abuse of a calf, Medicine, Science and the Law, 49 (4) 307-310. DOI: 10.1258/rsmmsl.49.4.307

For this month, we will be looking at some of the more bizarre situations that humans find themselves with animals. If you thought you haven't had Too Much Information already... prepare for things to get bestial.