Real medical cases, explained by a doctor.
Almost every case turns on an interval. Each one is written up the same way: how the patient presented, what changed the assessment, how the team decided, and how it ended. Researched and reviewed by Dr. Eron Shehu.
Latest cases
All 52, by interval →- 6 yearsfrom the gunshot to a new faceA gunshot took his face. Canada's first face transplant gave him a new one.An accidental gunshot left a man unable to chew, swallow or speak normally. In 2018 he received Canada's first face transplant, and his surgeons counted every dollar.
- 21 daysin hospitalThe chainsaw kicked back and cut him a second mouthA chainsaw kicked back into a man's face, opening his cheek into his mouth. Getting a breathing tube in safely meant giving him oxygen through the wound.
- 3 yearswithout recurrenceThe tumour covered half her face. Surgeons rebuilt it from the tumour's own skin.A 74-year-old arrived with the largest tumour of its kind on record, across half her face. It came out in one piece, and its own skin closed the hole.
- 5 monthson the back of his other handHis thumb lived on the back of his other hand for five monthsA man's severed thumb could not go straight back, so surgeons sewed it onto his other hand and moved it home five months later, with a joint from his foot.
- 9 yearsof follow-upHer whole scalp came off in one piece. Nine years later, her hair is back.A machine shaft caught a woman's hair and tore away her entire scalp. Surgeons reattached it, rejoined its vessels and pinned it down in a spiderweb of stitches.
- 6 monthsand seven major operationsHer lost arm gave its nerve to her leg, and her toe became a thumbA shark attack took a woman's left hand, the thumb and two fingers of her right, and 16 cm of her sciatic nerve. Her surgeons rebuilt what they could from what the attack had left.
Would you have caught it?
All games →Every case cites its source
Peer-reviewed reports where they exist, named at the foot of each article so you can read the original.
The diagrams are ours
Fifty-one drawn for these articles, because the explanation usually needs a picture that does not exist yet. Browse them all, free to reuse with attribution.
Checked by a doctor
Sources are selected and verified by a doctor. Drafts are prepared with AI assistance and checked line by line against them before publication. How we work.
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