A 73-year-old woman's appendix was full of buckshot, making it easily visible in this X-ray. The small spot above and to the left is a pellet on the way down.
Posted on 01/08/2006 8:40:02 PM PST by neverdem
Though it may look vaguely like a hand grenade, the solid white structure in the X-ray is actually someone's appendix, visible only because it is full of buckshot - so full, in fact, that it is stretched to about three times its normal size.
The patient, a 73-year-old Inuit woman at Norton Sound Regional Hospital in Nome, Alaska, had probably been swallowing the pellets inadvertently for decades, in the meat of ducks and geese shot by local hunters.
The image was no surprise to the doctors who interpreted her X-ray, William M. Cox and Gene R. Pesola, who were used to seeing buckshot - though not this much - in the appendix in Alaska natives.
The round spot high above and to the left of the appendix on the film is another pellet on the way down, "probably evidence of a recent meal," the doctors wrote, in a report posted online last week by The New England Journal of Medicine.
Older people with bad or missing teeth may not chew well enough to notice the metal pellets in their food, the doctors said.
Once swallowed, the shot may travel through the digestive tract and leave by the usual exit. But some pellets may find their way into the appendix.
"The buckshot goes down the narrow part of the appendix to the wider part and ends up with nowhere to go since it is a blind pouch," Dr. Pesola explained in an e-mail message, adding that the pellets become trapped because the opening is narrow.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A 73-year-old woman's appendix was full of buckshot, making it easily visible in this X-ray. The small spot above and to the left is a pellet on the way down.
Hallelujah. We finally know what the purpose of the appendix is.
The enviros are rushing to explain why she didn't die of lead poisoning 40 years ago.
Sounds like it would make a good case for an episode of House.
Shot through the gut
and your to blame.
Baby, you give looove,
a bad name!!
Nice map. Just one problem, this woman lives in Norton Sound, Alaska not eastern Canada.
We were always told not to swallow watermelon seeds as they'd end up in your appendix. May be some truth to that.
"I thought it was SUPPOSED to be crunchy!"
I had often wondered what the appendix was for. Usually when I use a shotgun no x-rays are needed.
Might be helpful to chew the food before swallowing
I thought the watermelon seeds have a mild toxin, which causes some to throw up when they have consumed crushed watermelon seeds, mostly in juice.
Note though now-a-days watermelons of the seedless variety are common.
That's hard to do if you ain't got teeth. :)
How many people shoot geese with buckshot? I'd think they'd tend to either miss, or blow the birds apart...
Those who don't have suitable birdshot. In the excerpted text, they used buckshot and pellets three times each, IIRC.
I was told not to eat watermolon seeds because watermelons would start growing out my ears. You obviously didn't hear what I was being told, because you have watermelons growing out your ears.
Please repeat. I didn't hear you the first time.
LOL!
My dad used to tell me that, and it scared the crap out of me. I was thinking the same thing (about some truth to it) when I read through this article. Guess I will forward it to Dad so he can see that he was possibly right!
Use dentures, chew
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