Rob Myers

The tone of this book is almost exactly the same as 1000 Ways to Die, which was a great show, but it realllly doesn't work for me in written form. Plus there's a lot of entirely unnecessary and strangely judgmental background information about the people in these stories that just made me roll my eyes. "The technician, a devout Muslim who considered homosexuality the behaviour of deviants, opened the door and wheeled Jamal inside." This little tidbit doesn't add anything to the story, because she just did her job and was never mentioned again, so who gives a shit? Is it really necessary for us to be reminded that some people might not approve of how the patient lives his life? Or in a different story, after the doctor couldn't identify a mass in a patient's breast: "She's from Africa, so this has to be something infectious." No - it doesn't have to be something infectious. Africa doesn't have a monopoly on infectious diseases! The common cold is an infectious disease! You can take into account a patient's travel history and consult with colleagues without perpetuating the idea that Africa is just a seething hotbed of disease. Even airport customs asks about specific countries and not the ENTIRE CONTINENT and only when there ACTUALLY IS an outbreak. Just because the doctor was right in this case doesn't mean that all African people with symptoms you can't identify right away have an infectious disease (from Africa...because again there are plenty of infectious diseases an African person could have picked up in Canada).

Also I thought it was kind of weird that this book used the gimmick of having one of the stories be made-up. Especially since the page you're directed to to vote on which story you think is a lie is a 404 error. So I can't even talk about any of these stories being real because I have no idea which one isn't. This is a small issue but it still annoyed me.… (mere)

This was a fascinating book that I read in one day!

It covers 51 unusual (and sometimes gross!) medical conditions that have actually been documented. There is the woman who swallowed a toothbrush like the title suggests (she accidentally swallowed it while using it to force herself to vomit) to the man who had a swollen and distended abdomen, and the scars from trying to remove what was in it (after his death, the autopsy showed he had swallowed a number of metal objects).

I recommend reading this book alongside Dennis DiClaudio's THE HYPOCHONDRIAC'S POCKET GUIDE TO HORRIBLE DISEASES YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE, which is just as fascinating -- and tongue-in-cheek hilarious!!… (mere)