10 Incredible X-Rays That You Won’t Believe Are Real

Since the discovery of the effects of the X-ray in 1895, they have gone from being a mere form of entertainment to an incredibly useful medical tool. Today, X-rays are used around the world by doctors to get a detailed look inside the human body so that they can better understand exactly what is wrong with someone.

Although they are often used to assess breaks in bones or look for masses that could indicate disease, they are also just as effective when used to observe foreign objects that have been lodged into a person. While this can be a dangerous situation for the person involved, it can also be hilarious to everyone else, especially if the object is particularly shocking or stuck in a strange place like the ones featured in this list.

Key

Nicholas Holdermann was playing in his house when he tripped and fell, forcing a car key into his eye. The X-ray showed that there was no major damage to the surrounding area but surgery had to be delayed until an ophthalmologist could be brought to the hospital so that the key could be safely removed. The 17-month-old was lucky enough to fully recover just several months later, with no lasting damage caused.

Nails

Nail guns cause hundreds of accidents every year and in the wrong hands they can be deadly. However, even when used by a fully trained professional such as Isidro Mejia they can still prove to be incredibly dangerous. According to sources, the builder fell and mistakenly pulled the trigger on the nail gun, firing six nails straight through his skull into his brain and spine. Surgeons were able to remove all of the nails over the course of five days.

Scissors

Surgery can be a fairly complicated procedure that involves plenty of doctors, nurses and equipment. Although strict protocols are in place to ensure that everything gets back to its rightful place after it has been used, sometimes mistakes are made. One of these mistakes affected 69-year-old Pat Skinner who was left with a pair of surgical scissors in her abdomen for 17 months after an operation. She required another operation to have them removed and this time the surgeons managed to not leave any instruments inside.

Arrow

The brain is arguably the most important vital organ in the human body and it is very sensitive to any sort of damage, which can cause significant problems. However, there have been several recorded cases whereby people have had exceptionally large objected lodged in their brains and have miraculously able to survive. This was the case with 16-year-old Yasser Lopez who had an arrow fired into his head by mistake when a spear gun was accidentally let off. The spear didn’t kill him, but it did cause some problems with his movement down the left side of his body.

A Bottle

Doctors are no strangers to having patients who have inserted objects into their behinds for whatever reason. They don’t normally get the opportunity to see a man with two things tucked up his butt though. The patient had panicked when the bottle became stuck inside him and then quickly used the wire to try to get it out before it too became trapped. Eventually, he realized he would have to go to hospital to get both the bottle and wire from his rectum.

Magnet Balls

While Haley Lens thought that these small magnetic balls were candy, the 8-year old was actually swallowing a very dangerous material that required immediate medical attention. The X-ray showed a collection of around 30 of the objects stuck in her digestive system. Doctors had to perform emergency surgery to ensure that Haley didn’t come to any harm. Swallowing multiple magnets can cause huge health problems as they can attract each other so that they move through the walls of the intestines, causing serious damage to the inside of a body.

Knife

When muggers decided to attack a 15-year-old boy, his friends rushed to his aid. Unfortunately, the attackers were armed with knives and proceeded to stab the three youngsters in the neck, back and the head. While the other wounds didn’t hold onto the offending weapons, one of them became trapped in the head of a victim. The five-inch blade was safely removed from the head during surgery, although it is unclear if there was any lasting damage.

Cell Phone

People are willing to do all kinds of crazy things to avoid a phone call or to ignore their cell phone but we expect few have ever gone to this length to solve the problem. The owner of this X-ray was actually a prisoner at Welikada jail in Sri Lanka who was trying to smuggle his phone into the facility. Guards at the prison were alerted to the ploy when it began to vibrate and emit a buzz from his stomach area.

Kidney Stones

Kidney stones can be very painful. The formation of calcium and other chemicals in the digestive tracts will usually only grow to millimeters in length but in rare cases can reach sizes that are significantly larger. This X-ray showed that this particular patient, Sandor Sarkadi, had an unusually large kidney stone that was an incredible 6.7 inches long. Doctors were stumped as to how he had ignored the pain the stone would have caused for long enough for it to reach that size.

Spatula

Doctors were confused when 31-year-old Guan Hsuing entered the emergency room with a 12-inch spatula stuck in her throat. An X-ray showed that the kitchen tool could only be freed by surgically removing some of the esophagus that it was lodged in, though the operation proved to be a total success. Hsuing explained that she had had an allergic reaction and attempted to unblock her swollen throat with chopsticks and then the spatula.