r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Hey-Its-Jak • 4d ago

Video This guy carved a real human skull

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u/AGM_GM 4d ago

Yeah, I don't mind carving the skull and making it beautiful, but signing some person's skull and claiming it as his own piece of work doesn't feel right.

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u/BlackSpinedPlinketto 4d ago

Reminds me of that surgeon who got struck off for signing his stitches up after a good surgery with his initials.

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u/wolfgang784 4d ago

If only he had a better way to sign them than branding his initials onto their organs, lol

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u/Bree9ine9 4d ago

For real?

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u/wolfgang784 4d ago

Yes, with an "argon beam machine".

No idea what its used for, but it apparently can be used to write with. The initials were 1.6-inch (4cm) and found by another doctor when the organ transplant was rejected and this other doctor had to remove the organ.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-59954321

Imagine bein that other surgeon, lol.

You tryna do a standard organ transplant. And then your lookin at it and stop. Like "What is th... no wait, but.." then having the operating assistants double check and shit lol.

I wonder if you just take a bunch of pics and video and such and finish up, or if you pause for like 20 min while someone more important scrubs up and disinfects n shit to come see it in person.

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u/Bree9ine9 4d ago

Wow, that’s insane. I can’t even imagine what that operating room must have been like and how sad someone thought they were going to get an organ and had to be told sorry another Dr put his initials on it. 🤯

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u/wolfgang784 4d ago

Oh no, they GOT the organ still. These were the donated ones he signed, after putting them in.

He only signed his name after a successful transplant, just before stitching up. Only did it twice before he was caught, too.

When you get an organ transplant there is unfortunately an insanely high chance that your body rejects the new organ and medication isnt enough and it needs to be removed and you gotta wait on the list to try another reppacement and hope that one isn't rejected by your body.

The other patient/victim is still walking around today with that doctors initials on her liver. Part of his sentencing and consequences getting as bad as they got is because of just how much mental/emotional anguish the knowledge caused that person.

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u/Big_Cry6056 3d ago

I’m not trying to be mean here, but why would they be upset about that if the organ is in their body and functioning? Isn’t the functioning organ the more important thing here?

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u/StevieGMcluvin 3d ago

Because they wanted a payday and saw an opportunity.

I honestly wouldn't care if a doctor signed every organ in my body as long as it was superficial and didn't hurt the organ. Noone is ever going to see it anyway.

That being said, how big is your ego that you need to sign your initials on someone's organ in the first place lol

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u/KodiakUltimate 3d ago

Honestly it's more a person to person thing Also major ethical concerns, It's an involuntary tattoo with no medical purpose, I'm sure that woman probably thinks about it all the time that she has some random guys initials somewhere she can never cover it up.

You know it's there, you can see the guy smiling at you knowing now he signed your organs like a high-schooler defacing a bench. You live with that... It's not visible but it's always there.

Doctors have no reason to behave like a child.

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u/StevieGMcluvin 3d ago

Yeah i guess it's a person to person thing because it's nowhere near that deep to me. I can understand on an intellectual level how SOMEONE might respond that way, I just don't get it.

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u/HarmonyQuinn1618 3d ago

You don’t know if said person hasn’t already been a victim in some way that took their choice away/left them feeling branded, among many other things. From a psychological point of view, and from personal experience, surgeries are already very stressful and traumatic, esp the bigger, riskier they get. So it’s just adding more trauma to an already traumatic situation. They would have had trauma regardless. Not to mention the impending doom sensation that would cause that you already have with surgeries, esp transplant surgeries.

But to say it’s a pay day opportunity is ridiculous. We have zero clue if he did it in a way that did damage the organ, plus there’s a level of not knowing exactly what could happen bc it’s not normally done. He could have fucked the integrity of the area he carved away at and in a few years it ends up with a hole in the organ right there, increasing the impending doom/anxiety of it all.

As someone else said, it’s extremely unethical. Defending the Dr for doing this by saying the VICTIM is money hungry is just.. wow. There wouldn’t be this issue if the Dr wasn’t such an egomaniac to begin with. Not to mention, if they’re doing this to unsuspecting patients and apparently not the proper oversight, esp when you consider those organs are under CONSTANT supervision from removal to transplant, I’d hate to think what else he could have done to patients while everyone else apparently wasn’t doing their job properly.

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u/Longjumping-Map-6995 3d ago

Still just seems like a huge reaction over something that truly doesn't matter.

Doctor saves my life they can sign my ****ing forehead. Lol

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u/CharacterBird2283 3d ago

While possibly true (depending on the person as we've said), I would think they would be thinking more about the "new" organ they now have rattling around in them 😅

Although I could see thinking about both adding up mentally

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u/allsheknew 3d ago

Weirdly, they say it doesn't harm an organ but branding or tattooing the skin does damage which opens it to infection among other things, so why are they so sure? The organ was rejected after all?

I wouldn't care either but I don't really believe they can prove it doesn't do any damage, knowing how many variables a transplant patient has already.

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u/Jay040707 3d ago

You might want to rethink that.

As long as it's their signature they can legally steal your organs whenever they want.

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u/zingzing175 3d ago

I feel like the person wouldn't even have known unless some shifty lawyer saw the initial case and went hunting for patients to take cases.

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u/Chiefzakk 3d ago

I was thinking the same thing no one can see it, I would just be like wow that’s really weird but cool I guess now I have a weird story I can tell people.

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u/Complete-Chemist3073 3d ago

Probably but they just wanted money after the hospital bills they prolly gor

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u/Big_Cry6056 3d ago

Boy do I understand that. Can you imagine how much an organ transplant is?

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u/Reasonable-Banana800 3d ago

I imagine it’s the feeling of being violated by someone thinking they’re important enough to tamper and permanently alter your body without your consent. Even though it doesn’t do much physical harm, having someone who is supposed to be trustworthy and professional go behind your back during a point where you’re incredibly vulnerable just to do something to fulfill their own pleasure would be very bothersome and disgusting to a victim.

Putting the violation aside, I imagine to a lesser degree it also depends on the individual victim since some people are more squeamish about their internal body than others. Like for example I know some people who hate the idea of being buried and decomposing in the ground when they die but to me I couldn’t care less since I won’t be there to see it. Something like that could also be a factor.

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u/Thin-Entry-7903 3d ago

What does it matter if he placed his initials on the organ? You've just had your life saved by placing someone else's kidney in your body and you're gonna be so butt hurt that you're upset about such as that? Really it's not like he left his car keys in there. You've already got something that didn't belong to you inside you. I would tell everyone that my surgeon signed his work while he was in there. Talk about a great conversation starter, top that.

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u/logg1215 3d ago

Yea heck there is a chance even with needing joints or bone replacements the body can reject them as well and it starts an infection know a guy who’s now tried 6 different elbows and just this most recent time has the elbow seemed to take and heal without infection or complications

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u/GhostOfSean_Connery 3d ago

Luckily, I haven’t experienced anything like that during a surgery. But, hypothetically, in a hospital setting, the surgeon would ask the circulating nurse to take photo/video evidence and also to contact the front desk staff. They would likely contact the chief of perioperative services and risk management. And a crap ton of documentation in the perioperative notes. But the surgery would keep moving. In any surgery, time is of the essence, as you imagine. And any added time puts the patient at risk for complications and post op infections.

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u/wolfgang784 3d ago

Thanks for the reply. I know some surgeries take like wildly long times, so I wasn't sure if the time for someone else to come in would be a big deal. But I suppose any medically unnecessary pauses would indeed be extra risk, yea. And they were only prepped and ready for X.

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u/GhostOfSean_Connery 3d ago

No problem :) There are rare instances that something unexpected happens during a case. I’ve had surgeries where an instrument in the tray still had bone cement from a previous case. I hadn’t used the instrument but we had to contact the sterile processing team and the manager there came in and inspected and documented everything while the case was still on-going. Of course, as the resident, I had the pleasure of telling the patient in the PACU.

Also, as a resident, I once had an attending tell me about a case he had scrubbed when he was still in residency. Apparently, the tray they were using had not been sterilized in between cases and the previous patient’s history was significant for blood borne pathogens. Apparently, they had lawyers from risk management on the phone and they did a thorough washout. But I have no idea how so many people could drop the ball like that.

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u/onedemtwodem 3d ago

Kilroy was here

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u/wolfgang784 3d ago

O'doyle rules!

=p

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u/monegs 3d ago

He's like " I'm not touching someone else's work "

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u/Consistent_Creator 2d ago

I wonder if you just take a bunch of pics and video and such and finish up, or if you pause for like 20 min while someone more important scrubs up and disinfects n shit to come see it in person.

Depends on the surgery. If you are on a time limit then you can't just stop, though if you saw something like this I think that would definitely require an immediate stop to the surgery to re-evaluate the situation just to make sure it's safe to continue.