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Unconventional, Successful Surgeries In History

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In the world of surgery, we have bypasses, transplants, tracheostomies, and much more. This is nothing new to us and we probably know someone who has undergone some form of surgery – whether it is an elective or urgent procedure. However, there are times when conventionality falls away and a surgical procedure becomes something of a spectacle that leaves many bemused.

Tummy Tuck that Dog

It’s not only humans that feel their self-esteem dwindling because of weight issues. Let Obie the pudgy dachshund be our case in point. Tipping the scales at 34kg (the average weight of a fourteen-year-old human), this dog could barely chase his own tale, let alone a burglar. Finally, Obie got off his big behind and got some exercise, subsequently losing 19kg. Unfortunately, this great achiever now had tremendous amounts of loose skin, so his owner took him to get a tummy tuck (yes, you heard right), which saw Obie losing 9 grams of loose skin.

Doctors told him that he would never walk again

Car crash survivor, Rick Constantine (58), suffered a brain stem stroke which led to paralysis. He was told by doctors that he would never walk again because his nerves forced his muscles to over-contract, but the unyielding Mr. Constantine stayed strong.

Through Botox treatments (they’re not only there to make you look beautiful) and physical therapy, but he also began to see positive changes. Thereafter, he underwent surgery that sought to reduce the input from nerves that caused his muscles to over-contract. Two weeks after the surgery, Mr. Constantine was walking without aid and has even run a 1-mile race with no help.

The Six Million Dollar Man

It’s not actually in the seven figures, it’s closer to R500k ($56 000). Born without a hand, Matthew James sought the assistance of the Mercedes F1 team by writing a letter to their Boss, Ross Brawn.  In it, he kindly asked for approximately R490k so that he could score an “i-Limb Pulse” bionic hand.

In exchange for the most technologically ground-breaking hand in the world, he would allow the F1 team to place advertisements on it – either way, he would be winning. The touching letter landed Matthew with a brand new and pretty cool hand, which makes him the closest thing to Bionic Man or Will Smith in iRobot.

I’ll just do it myself then

It’s not every day that you hear of a man who has performed an operation on himself, but in 1921, Dr. Evan O’Neil Kane of Kane demonstrated that less-dangerous local anesthetics, other than ether, could be used to operate on patients.

Dr. Kane used himself as a test subject and, after taking local anesthetics, he made a large incision on his abdomen and removed his own appendix. In 1932, he shocked the world by doing a more complex surgical procedure on himself to repair an inguinal hernia. It is said that during the delicate procedure (which required he operate close to the femoral artery) he laughed about it like it was nothing special, even when he was sewing himself up so close to the special artery.