Radiographs: a flickr set

November 20, 2007 12:50 PM

Radiographs : a small and terrific flickr set. After you check out an exploded hand, maybe you will want to admire a Fasciolaria filamentosa.
posted by of strange foe (27 comments total)

AAAAAAGGGHHHHHHNNNNNNN!!!!!!

Oh, christ, those fucked with my head.
posted by notsnot at 1:02 PM on November 20, 2007

Reminds me of a certain shot in Romero's Land of the Dead, which is an X-ray image of a zombie tearing someone's forearm bones apart from each other. Almost made me puke in the theatre, and when I watched it on DVD I literally closed my eyes, put my fingers in my ears and went "lalala" so that I didn't have to hear the sound.
posted by autodidact at 1:06 PM on November 20, 2007

Unfortunately I can't find the pictures online, but my dad, an ER doctor, took a couple of shots of head x-rays of a patient that had a screw in his ear, probably a #10 wood screw. Anyway, he had manually screwed it all the way into his ear, obliterating his ear drum and bones. Oddly, he claimed that it didn't hurt. I think he turned out okay, except for the deafness in that ear and the mental illness that lead to it.

He didn't get pictures of the (also mentally ill) woman who was left alone and ate an entire 50 count box of latex exam gloves, but apparently that x-ray was also something to see.
posted by jedicus at 1:07 PM on November 20, 2007

In all fairness: Latex gloves? Yum.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:08 PM on November 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

My ex brother-in-law is an ER doc and while in school at a teaching hospital he brought home a number of these. His story is that this type of picture is very common both among the students and docs in that setting. Its both used as a teaching tool and as a macabre and ghoulish joke item. He seemed to believe it had value to attenuate reactions such as autodidact's.
posted by sfts2 at 1:11 PM on November 20, 2007

a coat hangar

My goodness--that would be both sharp and large!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 1:17 PM on November 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Thanks, this one will bolster my case when convincing people not to put their feet on the dash.
posted by parudox at 1:18 PM on November 20, 2007

"accident"

Yeah, that sums it all up for me. Shudder. Thanks!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 1:20 PM on November 20, 2007

Oh dear god.
posted by jokeefe at 1:20 PM on November 20, 2007

[More inside]
posted by Abiezer at 1:23 PM on November 20, 2007 [8 favorites]

When I look at this set of photos I have to laugh because, what is that thing?
posted by mullingitover at 1:24 PM on November 20, 2007 [3 favorites]

Soon to be seen on death metal liner notes everywhere...
posted by gwint at 1:34 PM on November 20, 2007

Hmm. Some of these are pretty. And some of them are rotten.com fodder.
posted by Artw at 1:45 PM on November 20, 2007

It was a million to one shot, doc. Million to one.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 1:45 PM on November 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Holy shit crap cow! The dildo is to be expected, but a graduated cylinder? A shot glass? What in the hell?
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 1:46 PM on November 20, 2007

parudox, my wife does that all the time. I have tried every variant of "you do realize you're putting your feet on a bomb" and she will not stop. Somebody is going to have that picture taped to her monitor when she returns from her current vacation trip :-)
posted by localroger at 1:51 PM on November 20, 2007

I like how the fellow went out of his way to mention how much he appreciates brutal honesty: "Look doc, I get off on having this thing in my ass, but I need some help getting if out."

Should I ever be in that situation (a renaissance man should never say "never") that's the approach I'll take. No sense beating around the bush, as it were.
posted by aladfar at 2:20 PM on November 20, 2007

You know, I've not been having a great day, and, at first, these pictures added to the horror. But, honestly, each of these people had a much, much worse day at some time and so I will whine no more.
posted by inconsequentialist at 2:31 PM on November 20, 2007

It's just that every now and then someone comes in and says "I love these things in my ass, I got one stuck and I can't get it out, will you help me?" I respect that kind of honesty.

As do we all. As do we all.
posted by shmegegge at 2:33 PM on November 20, 2007

Ok, ok, jeez: I love these things in my ass.
posted by everichon at 3:08 PM on November 20, 2007

Thats no big deal. My brother used to swallow toothbrushes all the time! lol!
posted by AlphaLlama at 3:57 PM on November 20, 2007

Lately, one of my daily blog reads is Radiology Picture Of The Day.

Not so many unusual "things I put in my ass" pictures, but plenty of fascinating looks at all the horrible things that happen to the inside of the human body anyway. It's a must-see.
posted by briank at 4:38 PM on November 20, 2007

It's pretty funny to think that some upstanding but poverty-stricken civilization in the far distant future will look back at our age, and they'll probably use stuff like this as an example of our horrific decadence and shameless debauchery.

Take that, Roman empire!
posted by mullingitover at 7:21 PM on November 20, 2007

Yes, yes, the gruesome stuff is fascinating / hilarious / eeeeeeueuehueuheughghhghghg-inducing, but I was most moved by the exquisite shell cross-sections. I'd have liked to see more of those.

...or better yet, shells in rectums! (Recti? Rectae? Yes, I'm an illiterate peasant.)
posted by ZakDaddy at 8:38 PM on November 20, 2007

This foetus from briank's link is so very strange.
posted by Mitheral at 12:44 AM on November 21, 2007

I once found a toothbrush inside my piano. It's one thing for a piano to swallow a toothbrush, but a person? What's the appeal?
Training for sword-swallowing?
posted by bassjump at 6:15 AM on November 21, 2007

the juxtaposition of the icon and last comment on this image is so funny - a sweet little baby saying, "what a nasty way to go!"
posted by lapolla at 3:41 AM on November 23, 2007