Greetings –

The doctor is in and so are these unbelievable medical mishaps that are featured in the new book from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! called Enter If You Dare! The book is an annual collection of unusual, unbelievable and amazing stories from around the world.  

Some of the book’s amazing medical stories include:

• Man of Steal – pg. 26: Builder Hu Zhuyin had a lucky escape after impaling himself on a crowbar 1 in. (2.5 cm) thick when he slipped while climbing scaffolding in Qingdao, China.  The solid steel crowbar sliced through his chest, missing his aorta by just ½ in. (1 cm).  Before medics could operate, firefighters had to cut through the bar so that Hu could lie flat on the operating table.
• Sumo Cyst – pg. 27: A Chinese woman thought she was pregnant with her first child, only to find that she was instead carrying an ovarian cyst weighing 7 lb, 11 oz. (3.5.kg).  Surgeons at a hospital in Haikou successfully removed the cyst – the largest ovarian cyst found in over 20 years.
• Swallowed Scissors – pg. 27: A man in Putian, China, accidentally swallowed a pair of scissors 3 ½ in. (9 cm) long and 1 ½ in (4 cm) wide.  Mr. Lin was using the scissors as a toothpick but when he suddenly laughed, they slipped down into his throat.  He tried unsuccessfully to cough them back up and the scissors eventually had to be removed by surgery.
• Tears of Blood – pg. 27: Teenager Calvino Inman of Rockwood, Tennessee, has a medical condition that leads to him crying tears of blood.  The bleeding, which can last for up to an hour, occurs at least three times a day.
• Second Baby – pg. 27: Julia Grovenburg of Fort Smith, Arkansas, stunned doctors by conceiving for a second time while already pregnant. When Mrs. Grovenburg went for her first ultrasound scan, she thought she was about eight weeks pregnant – and she was, with a baby boy. However, she was also almost 11 weeks pregnant with a baby girl, who was developing next to her younger brother in their mother’s womb. The non-twins are thought to represent an extremely rare case of superfetation.
• New Skull – pg. 26: A man whose skull was partially removed after an accident over 50 years ago has stunned doctors by growing  a new one – something that is thought to have happened only once before.  Gordon Moore of Northumberland, England, had worn a metal plate for half a century after being involved in a car crash, but when surgeons removed the plate in 2009 to treat an infection, they were amazed to find he had grown a completely new skull underneath.
• Maggot Infestation – pg. 27: After suffering from constant nosebleeds for five days, a 70-year-old woman had 40 maggots removed from her nose by doctors at a hospital in Sion, India. A housefly had entered her nose and laid eggs inside it. When the eggs hatched, the larvae started feeding on her flesh, causing her nose to bleed.
• Stretched Leg – pg. 27: In an attempt to be taken more seriously at work, Hajnal Ban, a politician from Logan, Queensland, Australia, paid a Russian surgeon $30,000 to break her legs and stretch them so that she would be 5 ft 4 in tall, three inches taller than her original height.

Please let me know if you would like to pursue any stories in the book or a story on the book itself.  Images are available, as well as interviews with people from Ripley’s or people featured in the book.

The book cover, as well as several pages and individual images, can be downloaded at http://www.ripleybooks.com/newsroom.

Regards,

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

407-339-0879 office

407-637-6000 cell

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm