The realm of medicine can contain extremely rare cases that they border on the bizarre side of medicine. Here we list the top 8 bizarre stories that made headlines this year. 1) Harlequin ichthyosis Harlequin ichthyosis, a congenital and genetic disorder causes infants to have very hard, thick skin covering most of their bodies. The abnormalities can affect even the shape of the eyelids, nose, mouth, and ears, and limit movement of the arms and legs. Infants can experience an excessive loss of fluids, and develop life-threatening infections and as a result the fatality rate for newborns with this disorder is exceptionally high. 2) The woman living with 6,000 tumours Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a rare genetic disease that affects around one in 2,500 people. The disease results in the growth of tumours along the nerves in the skin, brain and other parts of the body. Libby Huffer, a 44-year-old single mother is one of these people diagnosed with the rare disease resulting in her body to be covered with numerous tumours. “The tumours all over my back cause chronic pain, the nerves in my feet have a tingling sensation all the time which makes it hard to sleep, even though I'm on 13 different medications,” Huffer said. 3) Progeria in 4-year old Bangladeshi boy Bayezid Shikdar was born with an illness that displays symptoms of excess skin sagging from his limbs and face along with heart, vision and hearing problems. Doctors have suspected that the symptoms are due to a rare genetic disorder known as progeria, which causes rapid and premature ageing shortly after birth, leading to severe health complications. The disorder is estimated to affect just one in four million newborns worldwide and has only been reported 130 times since its discovery with sufferers estimated to have a life expectancy of only 13 years. 4) New ear grown on man’s arm A team of doctors have used cartilage from a man's ribs to build a new right ear. The Chinese man who lost his right ear in an accident will get the new ear transplanted next year. The patient, identified by his surname Ji, had suffered extensive injuries to the right side of his face in an accident with tissues near his right ear being so badly damaged that traditional reconstruction with a plastic prosthetic ear was not possible. The three-stage procedure is now at the second stage and when fully grown, the final stage will involve transplantation onto Ji’s head. “I lost one ear. I have always felt that I am not complete,” says Ji. 5) Cryogenic preservation for a terminally ill 14-year old girl Suffering from a rare form of cancer and told that her illness would be terminal, a 14 year old girl in the UK opted to be cryogenically frozen in hopes that scientists would someday be able to bring her back to life and cure her illness. Her father has attacked cryogenic firms saying, "they are selling false hope to those who are frightened of dying- taking advantage of vulnerable people." He further added, "When I asked if there was even a one in a million chance of my daughter being brought back to life, they could not say there was. I think it would be doubly impossible to both bring her back from the dead and cure her cancer, and companies should not hold out some false hope." 6) “World’s longest human tail” removed from teen An Indian teenager underwent surgery to remove an 18 to 20cm "tail" growing at the bottom of his spine. Doctors believe that the tail might have manifested itself in the womb due to a spinal deformity, but only appeared outside after the teen grew up. The “tail” is thought to be the longest ever recorded on a human. "When the size of the tail grew... [the tail] began to press on the boy's back," said surgeon Dr Pramod Giri. The surgery was not an overtly complicated procedure but must be conducted by a neurosurgeon as the tail is linked to the spinal cord. After the procedure, the teen was required to stay a few days for observation in the hospital. 7) World’s largest kidneys weighing 13 kg removed from man A man suffering from polycystic kidneys underwent a five-hour surgery to remove his pair of kidneys, weighing 13kg in total. His kidneys were 40 times bigger than normal and were the biggest kidneys removed anywhere in the world. His condition is a genetic disorder that causes the growth of several cysts on the kidney. As his abdomen grew in size, kidney function declined and eventually stopped. “We had a team of three urologists and two anaesthesiologists on our team. A team of general surgeons and vascular surgeons were on standby as we feared there would be many adhesions to the bowel that could damage the abdominal wall or big arteries and veins," recounted Dr. Fariborz Bagheri, head of the urology department at Dubai Hospital. 8) Prosopagnosia: The inability to recognise anyone at all Prosopagnosia or face-blindness is a neuropsychological condition where the part of the brain that recognises faces fails to develop or is damaged. This results in the sufferer being unable to recognise their people and sometimes even their own reflection. Depending on the severity some are unable to recognise objects, cars, animals, differentiate emotional expressions, age and gender. Currently, there is no cure or treatment but training programmes are being developed to help alleviate some of the facial recognition difficulties. In his book, Dr. Oliver Sacks wrote methods he and other individuals with neurological difficulties in facial recognition adapt to their condition. He states using a person’s gait, the way they dress and their voices to recognise them instead. He also stated that he is able to recognise his friends but it takes longer than most people. Source
