Or at least we’re pretty sure you didn’t.
Thing You Didn’t Know: When you’re having surgery performed on your buttocks, you should definitely not fart.
Story: In April 2008, 30-year-old Jorgen Olsen of Hammershoj, Denmark, was anesthetized and on the operating table, having a growth removed from his buttocks with a device known as an electric knife—an instrument that cuts tissue with a superheated spark. The surgery was under way…when, in his sleep, Olsen farted. The knife ignited the fart. And even worse, Olsen was lying on a surgery cloth laced with disinfectant—flammable disinfectant—which quickly burst into flames. When Olsen awoke, he was being treated for burns on his buttocks and surrounding areas. He missed nearly two months of work…and sued the hospital for an undisclosed amount of money.
Thing You Didn’t Know: Gardening is bad for your eyes.
Story: A 66-year-old woman was digging in her garden in suburban Sydney, Australia, in April 2009 when she accidentally flicked some soil into her eye—along with a small leech. The quarter-inch-long creature wriggled up under her eyelid and did what leeches do best—it attached itself to the inside of her eye and began sucking blood from it. After the woman’s husband was unable to remove it, they rushed to a hospital. Doctors were concerned that if they pulled the leech out, its head might remain in the woman’s eyeball, so they rinsed the eye with saline water (leeches don’t like salt). It worked, and the leech detached itself, but not before it had tripled in size. As a souvenir, the doctors gave the leech to the woman before she left.
Thing You Didn’t Know: You should never, ever throw away your mother’s old mattress.
Story: In July 2009, a woman in Tel Aviv, Israel, identified only as Annat, decided to do her mother a favor and throw out her old, tattered mattress and buy her a new one. When her mother found out what she’d done, she told her daughter that for decades, she’d been stuffing her life savings inside the mattress—there was more than $1 million in cash in it. The two women notified authorities, and a massive search of the city’s dumps began—complete with security guards to keep treasure hunters away. But after weeks of digging through garbage, the old mattress was never found. Annat told reporters, “Mom said, ‘The heart is crying, but, you know, we could have been in a car accident or had a terminal disease.’”
Not so crazy after all? The insanity plea is used in less than 1% of all U.S. criminal cases.
Thing You Didn’t Know: If you’ve been unlucky enough to lose a large part of your skull, don’t worry—it may grow back.
Story: In the 1950s, Gordon Moore of Hexham, England, was in a horrific car crash in which the front of his skull was crushed from just above his eyes to nearly the top of his head. The damaged portion of his skull had to be removed, and doctors replaced it with a large titanium plate. In 2009, more than 50 years later, doctors removed the plate to treat an infection—and were astounded to find that his skull had regrown underneath it. “They took the infected plate out,” Mr. Moore told the BBC, “and found I had grown a completely new skull underneath, so they just stitched me up.” Doctors said that such a thing is so rare that they could find only one similar occurrence in history. Bonus: The new skull bone even had a crease where the metal plate was dented in a minor car accident years earlier.
Thing You Didn’t Know: Fatty foods can clog a lot more than just your arteries.
Story: Officials in Seattle, Washington, reported in 2009 that fatty foods are also clogging up the city’s sewer pipes. Just as it does inside human arteries, the glop hardens, builds up, and then backs up—causing stinky bubbles to infiltrate residents’ sinks and toilets. Most of these deposits come from restaurants, which collectively wash thousands of greasy dishes every day. However, according to Seattle’s pollution-prevention coordinator, Julie Howell, “One thing that has been a real surprise is that there is much bigger residential component than people might think”—meaning much of the grease comes from households.
Odds of Earth having a catastrophic collision with an asteroid in the next 100 years: 1 in 5,000.