The Most Weird and Wonderful Health Stories of 2015

The man with scissors in his head, the world's first penis transplant and the husband who was nagged out of a coma: We look back at the most weird and wonderful health stories of the past year

• By Kate Pickles For Mailonline, www.dailymail.co.uk
• January 9th, 2016

It was the year we told our beloved bacon butties were deadly and diet mixers get us drunk more quickly.

Sugar frequently made the headlines while the debate about saturated fat rumbled on.

But among the studies and breakthroughs, there were a number of weird and wonderful health stories.

Here, MailOnline re-visits the top 20 tales that astonished the health professionals and public alike. 

THE BABY BORN IN A BAG

If you've ever wondered what it's like for a baby floating about in the womb, this incredible story will help you to picture it.

Silas Philips astonished doctors when he was born still inside his amniotic sac.

He was delivered three months premature at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California in February.

And doctors performing the Caesarean section on his mother, Chelsea, were astonished to see his amniotic sac was still intact when they pulled him from the womb.

Pictures show Silas curled up inside with the placenta and umbilical cord, his tiny hands and a leg clearly visible.

Baby Silas Philips astonished doctors when he was born inside the amniotic sac with it still intact

His hands, head and legs can be seen inside the amniotic sac after his delivery by Caesarean. Silas was still getting oxygen through the placenta while he was still inside it

The amniotic sac is a bag of clear, pale fluid inside the womb where the unborn baby develops and grows.

The fluid helps to cushion the baby from bumps and injury, as well as providing it with fluids it can breathe and swallow. It also maintains a constant temperature for the baby.

And until the bag was broken, Silas was still getting oxygen through the placenta. 

Typically the amniotic sac breaks on its own during birth, which is commonly referred to as a mother's 'water breaking'.

Or during a C-section, the surgeon cuts through it to deliver the baby. 

Doctors say the chance of the amniotic sac remaining completely intact after birth is 'ultra rare'.

Speaking at the time, Dr William Binder, who delivered Silas, said the moment took his breath away.

'Even though it sounds cliched, we caught our breath,' he said. 'It really felt like a moment of awe... and one that will stick in my moment for some time.'

MAN WITH THE SCISSORS IN HIS HEAD 

A man with a pair of scissors sticking out of his head stunned hospital staff when he walked into A&E and politely asked staff if they could help him.

Blood-soaked Jonas Acevedo Monroy, 32, was nicknamed 'The Gentleman' because of his good manners.

An X-ray reveals the scissors sticking into Jonas Acevedo Monroy's head and into the left parietal lobe

Mr Monroy had been in his local bar in the city of Chihuahua in north-western Mexico, when a jealous rival came over and began to hassle him.

Speaking in January, his friend Nandor Altamirano Carvajal, 30, said: 'Jonas was as always full of high spirits and was being charming with everyone in the bar when one of the locals took umbrage.

'He came over and started trying to wind Jonas up, but when that didn't work he started getting abusive and aggressive.

He had been stabbed in the upper-left side of his skull and the scissors had penetrated his parietal brain lobe. He is lucky to be alive.

'Jonas offered to buy the man a drink but the guy pulled out a pair of scissors from his jacket and stabbed him in the head.'

He took his friend, who was bleeding heavily, to hospital.

At first staff thought the scissors in his head were some sort of joke, but after Mr Monroy collapsed, they rushed him into the emergency room.

A hospital spokesman said: 'Staff were very surprised when the two walked in and the man with the scissors in his head shook the receptionist's hand and said he seemed to have a small problem and would the receptionist mind helping him.

'He had been stabbed in the upper-left side of his skull and the scissors had penetrated his parietal brain lobe. He is lucky to be alive.'

Doctors thought it was a joke to begin with and were astonished the man survived the face stabbing

WORLD'S FIRST PENIS REDUCTION SURGERY

A 17-year-old boy underwent the world's first penis reduction operation, surgeons reported.

The American teen requested the surgery after his penis grew too large, restricting his ability to have sex or play competitive sports.

The boy's surgeons were shocked when he came to them complaining that his penis was too big.

When flaccid, it measured almost seven inches in length and had a circumference of 10 inches - around the size of a grapefruit - and was shaped like an American football, medics said.

The surgeon who treated the teenager, Rafael Carrion, a urologist at the University of South Florida, told MailOnline in February: 'There comes a time in every urologist's career that a patient makes a request so rare and impossible to comprehend that all training breaks down and leaves the physician speechless.

'That question was "can you make my penis smaller"?' 

A 17-year-old boy in Florida is thought to be the first person to undergo penis reduction surgery. The teenager requested the operation after his penis (pictured on an X-ray) grew too large

The teenager had suffered from several bouts of priapism - an unwanted erection - due to having a condition in which abnormally-shaped blood cells block vessels in the penis, causing it to swell.

These episodes left his penis bloated and misshapen.

He said he was unable to have sex or play competitive sport, had difficulty wearing his pants due to his 'large and heavy phallus', and was embarrassed by how visible it appeared underneath regular clothing.

Lord knows there's a global race on how to make it longer and thicker in plastic surgery circles, but very little on how to make it smaller.

Dr Rafael Carrion 

Though his penis was so large, it did not grow when he had erections - it merely became firmer. 

Dr Carrion and his team looked at the medical literature but couldn't find any precedent for what to do.

'Lord knows there's a global race on how to make it longer and thicker in plastic surgery circles, but very little on how to make it smaller,' he said.

In the end, they decided to embark on a surgical technique normally used to treat Peyronie's disease, a condition where scar tissue develops along the penis, causing it to bend.

The surgeons sliced along an old circumcision scar, unwrapped the skin of the penis, and cut out two segments of tissue from either side. 

Doctors were able to bypass the urethra - the tube which carries urine through the penis - and all of the nerves that provide sensation.

The teenager spent just two days in hospital before returning home, apparently 'ecstatic' with his new penis. 

....AND THE FIRST PENIS TRANSPLANT 

2015 was the same year as a 21-year-old man underwent the world's first successful penis transplant.

The 'ground-breaking' operation took South African surgeons nine hours to perform, and allowed the patient to urinate normally and become sexually active again.

Three years ago the man, who remains unidentified, was forced to have his penis amputated after a botched circumcision.

The 'ground-breaking' operation took South African surgeons nine hours to perform, earlier this year

Each year thousands of young men, mainly from the Xhosa tribe in South Africa, have their foreskins removed in traditional rituals, with experts estimating around 250 losing their penises each year to medical complications. 

The operation was carried out by surgeons from Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, using a penis donated from a deceased person.

They said the procedure allowed the man to regain all function in the newly transplanted organ.

Speaking after the surgery in March, Professor André van der Merwe, head of the University's Division of Urology, said they were surprised by the patient's rapid recovery.

He said: 'Our goal was that he would be fully functional at two years and we are very surprised by his progress.

DIET MIXERS GET YOU DRUNK FASTER

We've all woken up after one too many with a slight sense of 'the fear' over what we might have said or done.

But it might not only be alcohol that's to blame.

Sugar found in full-fat mixers slows the passage of alcohol into the bloodstream

Researchers found that feeling the worse for wear after a big night out could also be the fault of the mixer.

Specifically, they discovered how the choice of mixer affects how quickly people get drunk, with diet soft drinks more intoxicating than the sugary versions.

While the finding may seem odd, the effect is big enough to take someone over the drink-drive limit.

The US researchers said the bar staff and revellers should be alerted to problem.

Women should be particularly aware because they are more likely to order a diet mixer to save on calories.

Twenty men and women were breathalysed after drinking vodka mixed with lemonade or with diet lemonade.

The amount of alcohol was the same in both cases but readings were up to 25 per cent higher with the low-calorie mixer.

It is thought that, like food, sugary drinks slow the passage of alcohol into the bloodstream.

In contrast, the artificial sweeteners found in diet drinks do nothing to dull booze’s effect, the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence reports. 

WIFE WHO NAGGED HER HUSBAND OUT OF A COMA 

You've all heard - and perhaps claim to empathise with - the expression of being 'nagged to death.'

But what about the one where a woman's nagging actually saved her husband's life?

That's exactly what happened to Will Osgerby whose wife Gill gave him a 'constant telling off' as he lay unconscious in hospital having been diagnosed with severe septic shock.

Doctors rushed to his side as the 42-year-old began to succumb to multiple organ failure, triggered by the deadly infection which entered his blood stream via a tiny cut.

The 42-year-old farmer is thought to have contracted the infection via a tiny cut. He was unconscious for six days but came round after hearing his wife's voice

Gill Osgerby said she gave her husband Will a 'proper talking to' as he lay unconscious in a coma having been diagnosed with life-threatening sepsis

The father-of-two, from Sunk Island, near Hull, was so seriously ill that medics warned his wife there was nothing more they could do for him.

Little did they know. 

Mrs Osgerby refused to give up and the 32-year-old gave her husband a piece of her mind, insisting he get better for her and the couple's two sons.

She did give me a good nagging, and I don't think I would be here today if it wasn't for her.

Will Osgerby, 42, 

Medics were stunned when, six days later, Mr Osgerby made a miraculous recovery. 

She said: 'At one point, I gave him a proper talking to, telling him he had to be strong and had to pull through for me and the kids.

'Over the time he was in the ICU, either myself, his mother or his sister were at his side 24 hours a day. I kept talking to him all the way through.'

Her husband credits her telling off with helping him pull through the ordeal in August.

'She did give me a good nagging, and I don't think I would be here today if it wasn't for her,' he said.

'While I was in a coma I was very much aware of what my family were saying to me. 

'She never lost faith in me, and I genuinely think that her constant support helped me to make it through.'

THE GIRL WITH RAPUNZEL SYNDROME 

Chewing your hair is often thought of as a bad habit - but this case takes it to extreme lengths. 

A five-year-old girl who was unable to eat was found to have a large hairball blocking her digestive system.

The girl visited a hospital in Adelaide, Australia, suffering from abdominal pain that had become steadily worse over a few weeks.

She also complained of an increasingly poor appetite, said doctors describing her case in BMJ Case Reports in May.

The five-year-old girl, who had no appetite, was found to have a hairball the weight of an apple in her stomach and bowel. Pictured is an X-ray of her stomach, which looks solid due to the mass inside it

They discovered she had a history of trichotillomania - a condition where people pull out their own hair and trichophagia - where they eat the hair that has been pulled out.

Previously the girl said she had found hair in her faeces, and had vomited a large ball of matted hair in the past.

After examining her, doctors found a large, firm, smooth, mass in her abdomen, which was very swollen.

Scans confirmed she had a bulk of hair in her stomach, which made it look as though the organ was solid and full of soft tissue.

She was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, where a hairball (called a trichobezar) is found in the stomach

They also showed a large lesion in her stomach and small bowel.

She was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, a rare condition in which a hairball (called a trichobezar) is found in the stomach, with its tail in the colon.

The condition is rare with less than 120 cases reported in the medical literature, and almost always affects young women.

As the hairball grows, it can cause ulcers, tear the stomach and bowel and block the digestive system.

It can also lead to pancreatitis – a serious condition where the pancreas becomes inflamed – as well as jaundice.

The girl was taken for an operation to remove the hairball.

A 125g (around the weight of an apple) hairball was removed, in an operation that took just over two hours.

After the procedure, she was able to eat again, and recovered well.

She was sent for behavioural therapy to help her stop pulling out and eating her hair, preventing the need for further surgery to remove hairballs.

GARDENER WHO MIRACULOUSLY KEPT HIS VISION DESPITE A 3-INCH NAIL IN HIS EYE

These gruesome pictures show how one gardener incredibly kept his vision after a strimmer sent a rogue 9cm nail flying into his eye. 

Doctors removed the nail, and eight weeks later the 27-year-old landscaper's vision had returned to normal.

But medics said had the nail struck just a millimetre away he would probably have suffered major damage.

Doctors from Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital carried out a risky procedure to remove the nail, preparing in case there was heavy bleeding.

The 27-year-old landscape gardener miraculously kept his vision after a 3-inch nail embedded in his eye

The 27-year-old landscape gardener miraculously kept his vision after a 3-inch nail embedded in his eye

Thankfully the procedure went to plan and the man fully recovered, the doctors said, describing the case in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Theycould not tell how long the nail was or its path into his skull, so radiologist Dr Rajiv Gupta used a new type of CT scanner to get detailed images.

'It reached almost to the tip of the other eye and the brain. It was a very long nail,' he said, speaking in May.

He was very fortunate that the nail had not penetrated his eyeball, but was to one side.

The bad news was that it was lodged against one of the main arteries supplying blood to the head, and another artery serving the other eye.

Doctors had no idea about the length of the offending nail until they used a new type of CT scan (above)

Dr Asaad said: 'The tip of the nail was like the finger in the dam. We were worried that if we pulled it out, there would be bleeding.'

Surgeons prepared for the worse case scenario but were relieved when no major bleeding occurred.  

After a tetanus shot and a prescription for five days of preventive antibiotics, he was allowed to go home. 

SNAKE BITES A MAN ON THE PENIS WHILE HE URINATES 

Being caught short is an uncomfortable experience but one farmer will wish he kept his legs crossed for that little bit longer.

The man urinated in a field and needed hospital treatment after a snake bit him on the penis.

The 46-year-old visited the emergency room of a hospital in Sringar, in the northern state of Jammu and Kasmir, three hours after suffering the bite.

Although the man was stable, his penis was ‘grossly swollen’, and covered in fluid-filled blisters where the snake’s teeth had entered, said doctors describing his case in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Levantine viper(pictured) struck while the farmer was urinating in a field near Srinagar, in India

The snake was identified by the patient as ‘gunas’, the local name for the Levantine viper, which is known to be venomous.

The man was given an anti-venom that neutralises the poison of the cobra, common krait and viper.

Three days after he began treatment, his blood was clotting normally again and he was allowed to go home.

The swelling in his penis went down four days after he left hospital, although he was left with black, wounds in the places where the snake’s fangs had punctured his penis.

This was because the venom had caused necrosis – the tissue to wither and die.

At a follow up two weeks later, he was found to be completely recovered. 

The man was treated at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, India. 

HOW HOMER AND SHREK COULD BE MAKING KIDS' FAT

From Homer Simpson to a raft of Disney characters, cartoons have long been firm family favourites.

But this year experts warned overweight cartoon characters could pose a risk to our waistlines.

The first study of its kind revealed how children are more likely to gorge on high-calorie treats, such as cookies and sweets, after watching seemingly overweight cartoon characters.

Researchers at the University of Colorado warned young people are sensitive to the body weight of their cartoon character idols.

Researchers looked at children who watched overweight characters such as Homer Simpson - and found as viewers, they too ate more 

They said children tend to perceive ovoid, or egg-shaped characters as being overweight, even though the creatures are imaginary. 

Professor Margaret Campbell, lead author of the study, said seeing ovoid cartoon characters influenced a child's diet, encouraging them to eat more unhealthy food.

She said: 'They have a tendency to eat almost twice as much indulgent food as kids who are exposed to perceived healthier looking cartoon characters or no characters at all.'

The Kellogg's brand is an example of a company that changed the image of one of its cartoon characters in a responsible way, according to Professor Campbell. 

Several years ago, it revamped Tony the Tiger to be slimmer and more athletic, which may link the character with healthier eating ideas rather than linking to ideas of eating lots of sugary cereal, she said.  

The study warned young people are sensitive to the bodyweight of their cartoon character idols, like Shrek,

WOMAN WHO CAN'T HAVE SEX GETS ARTIFICIAL VAGINA MADE FROM PIG INTESTINE 

A woman whose vagina was so narrow she could no longer have sex underwent successful surgery to have it reconstructed - using a pig's intestine.

The woman had been sent for treatment after her gynaecologist found it was not even possible to carry out an examination.

She was referred to the University Hospital in the town of Plzen, in the western Czech Republic.

Doctors there decided to try out the operation after learning that a similar procedure involving pigs intestine could be used on people who had a narrow bladder.

The unnamed woman underwent the procedure in the Czech Republic, using a pig's intestine 

But they could find no literature or evidence that it had ever been used to help somebody like the young woman, the news agency CEN reported.

The unnamed woman was suffering from scleroderma - a condition that results in hard, thickened areas of skin and sometimes problems with internal organs and blood vessels.

The condition can cause a woman's vaginal opening to constrict - making sexual function harder - and can also cause decreased sexual lubrication. 

The patient is very happy now. The gynaecological examinations are not painful any more. 

Dr Vladimir Kalis

To try and help the woman, surgeons decided to carry out surgery using a technique called a Mesh Augmented Vaginal Reconstruction.

This is usually performed on women who have suffered a pelvic organ prolapse and who are experiencing symptoms such as urinary incontinence. 

Because prolapse is associated with weakened internal supportive structures, a graft may be placed to strengthen the repair. 

Pig tissue is often used because its genetic make up is similar to that of humans. 

Vladimir Kalis, head doctor of the gynaecological-obstetrical clinic at the hospital who performed the surgery in February, was pleased with the results.

He said: 'The patient is very happy now. The gynaecological examinations are not painful any more.' 

'SUPER GONORRHOEA' OUTBREAK SPARKS NATIONAL ALERT

An outbreak of 'super gonorrhoea' detected in the north of England, triggered a national alert.

There were 15 cases of the highly drug resistant STI reported to Public Health England (PHE), the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV reported in September.

Reports to PHE's sexually transmitted bacteria reference unit of cases (STBRU) of the infection being highly resistant to the azithromycin drug have previously been rare, it added.

The outbreak, which was first detected in Leeds in March, has since spread, with cases reported in patients from Macclesfield, Oldham and Scunthorpe.

Fifteen cases of a highly drug resistant strain of gonorrhoea were detected in England after the first case was reported in Leeds in March

All of the cases involve heterosexual patients, and some people have reported partners from other parts of England.

The association said at the time: 'An outbreak control team meeting has been convened and STBRU are currently performing next generation sequencing on these strains to better understand the molecular epidemiology.'

It added: 'PHE is concerned that the effectiveness of current front-line dual therapy for gonorrhoea will be threatened if this resistant strain continues to spread unchecked.'

Peter Greenhouse, a consultant in sexual health based in Bristol said, said there could have been more undetected cases.

'If this becomes the predominant strain in the UK we're in big trouble, so we have to be really meticulous in making sure each of these individuals has all their contacts traced and treated,' he warned.

There were almost 35,000 cases of gonorrhoea reported in England last year - it is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the UK after chlamydia. 

WOMAN GETS AN EARRING STUCK IN HER LUNG AFTER IT GOT CAUGHT IN HER INHALER 

There's an argument here for keeping your handbag tidy and an even bigger one for remembering to put the top back on your inhaler after use.

The X-ray shows what happened to an asthma sufferer who accidentally inhaled an earring which became lodged in her lung. 

The 41-year-old woman was getting ready for a party to celebrate the New Year when she started to wheeze.

Worried her asthma would get worse and ruin the festivities, she reached into her bag for her inhaler, according to doctors writing in the journal BMJ Case reports.

Her blue salbutamol inhaler was uncapped in her bag, and she heard a ‘coarse rattle’ when she shook it.

The earring was caught in her inhaler before she used it. This x-ray show it lodged in her lung (left)

But she thought it was due to a loose connection inside the device and inhaled deeply and instantly felt a painful scratch in her throat.

She began coughing up blood, wheezing and became short of breath, and was rushed by ambulance to the A&E department of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, the report said in April.

When she arrived, doctors ordered a chest X-ray, and saw something was wrong straight away.

There was a mass that had ‘features consistent with a stud earring’, and a CT scan confirmed the earring was stuck in the woman’s right bronchus, one of the two main airways leading to the lungs.

Doctors prescribed antibiotics to prevent any infection before removing the offending object before it became embedded.

Writing in the report, doctors concluded: ‘The importance of replacing caps on inhalers when not in use is illustrated and should be encouraged when inhaler technique is taught or reviewed.’ 

HOW DRINKING GREEN TEA CAN CAUSE LIVER DAMAGE

From improving brain power to lowering the risk of cancer, the virtues of green tea have long been reported. 

So a teenager who developed severe inflammation of the liver was shocked to discover her troubled health was due to the green tea she had been drinking to lose weight.

The unidentified 16-year-old girl went to her GP with dizziness, nausea, stomach and joint pains. 

The doctor believed it was a urinary tract infection and sent her home with antibiotics.

A teenager who was drinking 3 cups of green tea a day ordered from China, suffered from an inflamed liver

But after two doses - and with her symptoms getting worse - she went to the A&E department of a Birmingham hospital.

At this point, she was suffering from jaundice, causing her skin and the whites of her eyes to turn yellow, said doctors describing her case in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

Her condition was so serious that she was deemed to need critical attention as doctors believed she was suffering from hepatitis, a swelling or inflammation of the liver.

Hepatitis can be caused by a virus, or when the liver is exposed to harmful substances such as alcohol.

But the girl, who was originally from Yemen, denied drinking any alcohol, and said she had not taken any over-the-counter medicines such as paracetamol, or illegal drugs.

She had also not travelled abroad recently, where she could have come into contact with a virus causing hepatitis, and had never had a blood transfusion - another way it can occur.

Then, when doctors questioned her again, she admitted to ordering Chinese green tea over the internet, having been told it could aid weight loss. 

She had bought two boxes, each containing 100 tea bags, and had been drinking about three cups a day for a few months.

As most of the ingredients were in Chinese, she had no idea what was in the tea.

Doctors immediately ordered her to stop drinking it, and after treatment with fluids and drugs through a drip, the swelling in her liver went down. 

After an investigation, it was found Camellia sinensis - a shrub whose leaves and buds are used to make drink - had caused the girl’s illness.

Following a short stay in hospital, she was discharged, and two months later her liver function was found to be normal.

WOMAN'S STOMACH ACHE IS DOWN TO 12,000 GALLSTONES

Eating too much over the festive period leaves many of us with an uncomfortable feeling in our stomachs.

But thankfully fewer of us will experience the discomfort and pain caused by gall stones, usually made of cholesterol, forming in the gall bladder.

Even those unlucky to experience them usually only have a handful of the small stones.

So imagine a doctor's astonishment when he had to remove a staggering 11,950 gallstones from inside an Indian woman  - thought to be a new world record.

Minati Mondal, 51, had been suffering from crippling stomach pain and acid reflux for two months.

Last month, she was admitted to Debdoot Sevayan Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, in eastern India.

After conducting tests and ultrasounds, doctors found she was suffering from a severe case of gallstones.

Minati Mondal, 51, had a staggering 11,950 gallstones (pictured)removed in an hour long operation - possibly setting a new world record

These are balls made of cholesterol and salts that form in the gallbladder, a little pear-shaped organ underneath the liver that stores bile.

Dr Makhan Lala Saha, a gastrointestinal endosurgeon at the hospital, said he was anticipating large number of stones but was still shocked when the number crossed the 5,000 mark.

He removed nearly 12,000 stones in an hour long laparoscopic surgery, where surgeon access the inside of the abdomen and pelvis through a 'keyhole' cut, without having to make large incisions in the skin.

Ms Mondal (Top)

Ms Mondal (Top)
had been suffering from chronic abdominal pain and acid reflux for two months. Dr Makhan Lala Saha (bottom), the gastrointestinal endosurgeon who removed the stones said: 'I had never thought that a gall bladder could contain so many stones'

Dr Saha said: 'I was astonished to see the large number of stones that we extracted from the gall bladder of this patient.

'I had never thought a gall bladder could contain so many stones.

'It took my assistants four hours to count the number of the stones that were between 2mm and 5mm in size. It took us 50 minutes to remove them.'

The doctor has written to the Royal College of Pathologists in London to keep the specimen in the museum.

And it is now thought the huge amount of gallstones removed could be a new world record. 

TUMOUR CAUSES TEENAGE BOY TO LACTATE MILK

Forget the usual problems associated with being a teenager, one boy found his 'sweaty nipples' were something far more sinister..

The 16-year-old, from New York, confessed about the embarrassing condition during a medical appointment.

Combined with the other symptoms he had - such as narcolepsy and falls - doctors worked out the 'sweat' was actually breast milk.

Writing for the website boingboing, the neurologist who treated him explained this can occur in men if the body is producing the wrong hormones and turning on the lactation glands.

The teenager complained of having sweaty nipples but he was in fact producing breast milk which led doctors to the tumour

Dr Sandra Block explained: 'This is exactly what happens with an active pituitary adenoma, a benign tumor in the middle of the brain sending the pituitary gland into overdrive.'

The patient, known only as a man called Duncan, arrived with his parents one morning for an appointment, complaining he fell regularly.

It emerged his falls weren't just stumbles, but periods of several minutes where he was unable to move. 

He was also continually exhausted - falling asleep anywhere and everywhere, including while playing the trumpet and at a heavy metal concert - while his parents also reported him suffering from hallucinations and headaches. 

While Duncan did have narcolepsy with cataplexy, it was being caused by something else.

The sweaty nipples were the giveaway - and suggested a benign brain tumour, Dr Block explained. 

His haywire hormones were causing him to produce milk - a condition called galactorrhea.

The diagnosis was confirmed by an MRI and the tumour was removed successfully, relieving Duncan of his symptoms.

MAN, 45, UNDERGOES WORLD'S 'MOST COMPLEX' FACE TRANSPLANT 

A Spanish hospital claimed it performed the 'world's most complex' face transplant. 

Doctors said the 27-hour procedure – to reconstruct the man's entire lower face and neck – is the most difficult surgery they have carried out to date.

They said it has since allowed the man, who was terribly disfigured by a disease, to lead a normal life.

A team of 45 doctors, surgeons, nurses and anaesthesiologists at Vall d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona, took part in the operation in February.

The 45-year-old man, who did not want to be identified, underwent the 'world's most complex' face transplant to reconstruct his neck, mouth, tongue and throat. The X-rays show the man before and after the surgery

Unlike similar operations, where a patient has had features of their face replaced, or rebuilt, this procedure was much more invasive.

The man had suffered a condition called arteriovenous malformation for the past 20 years.

This is a tangle of blood vessels in the brain which diverts blood from the arteries to the veins, bypassing normal brain tissue.

In this man's case, it caused facial deformities and problems with his vision and speech.

As a result, most of the man's face lower face was been reconstructed, including his neck, mouth, tongue and the back of his throat.

And all the skin and muscles of his face, nose, lips, jaw, all teeth, palate and cheek bones were transplanted by using plastic surgery techniques and microsurgery.

The hospital released a statement saying: 'This is the first time that a transplant of this complexity has been performed in the world.' 

They said the patient only visits the hospital for routine check-ups.  

BACON, SAUSAGES AND BURGERS JOIN CIGARETTES ON CANCER-CAUSING LIST

It was the news many of us had feared but few wanted to believe.

Foods including bacon, burgers and sausages are as big a cancer threat as cigarettes, global health chiefs recently ruled.

The World Health Organisation listed processed meat among the most cancer-causing substances, alongside arsenic and asbestos.

Fresh red meat also joined the ‘encyclopaedia of carcinogens’ ranked as only slightly less dangerous than the preserved products.

Foods including bacon, burgers and sausages are as big a cancer threat as cigarettes,  The World Health Organisation announced earlier this year

The classifications, by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, were announced in October amid mounting concern that meat fuels the disease which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK. 

Links to bowel cancer, Britain’s second biggest cancer killer, are particularly strong, with estimations that half of cases could be prevented by healthier lifestyles.

The Department of Health’s scientific advisers recently concluded that red and processed meat ‘probably’ increase the odds of bowel cancer.

Processed meat has previously been blamed for one in 30 deaths and is seen as dangerous because preserving techniques can raise levels of cancer-causing chemicals.

It is estimated that if intake was cut to 20g a day – a rasher of bacon a day or an English breakfast once a week – almost 20,000 early deaths would be prevented in the UK each year.

NEW MOTHER CLAIMS DOCTOR LEFT PHONE INSIDE HER AFTER DELIVERING HER BABY 

A Jordanian woman claimed a doctor left his mobile phone in her abdomen after delivering her baby by Caesarean section.

Hanan Mahmoud Abdul Karim, 36, was admitted to a private hospital in Amman, Jordan, for the operation on April 24th this year.

She claims that during the procedure, the doctor left his mobile phone in her abdomen,Gulf News reports.

Her mother, Majeda Abdul Hamid, told local media that her daughter gave birth to a 4.8kg boy (10.5 lbs) and as all appeared to be well, she was sent home from hospital.

A Jordanian woman claimed a doctor left his mobile phone in her abdomen after delivering her baby by Caesarean section, which she only noticed when it started to vibrate (file photograph)

But later, she claims her family noticed her stomach vibrating and she began suffering terrible pain.

'My daughter suffered serious pains and could not move,' the mother is quoted as saying.

'I brought her back to the hospital where she was treated but nothing was done for her.'

Hanan was then allegedly rushed to the casualty department of Al Bashir public hospital, where X-rays revealed there was a foreign object in her abdomen.

She claims surgeons quickly operated to remove the phone.

Her case was brought up in the Jordanian parliament, where parliament member Salim Al Bataynah called on the Jordanian government to resign as a result of the scandal.

He said: 'In countries which show respect to their nations, and following such scandals, governments usually resign,' according to Gulf News. The parliament should show responsibility and be on the level of the case.'

Gulf News reports the Jordanian Health Ministry spokesman Hatem Al Azrae said Hanan's story was 'baseless and a fabricated one', but added that the ministry was following it. 

SHOCKING VIDEO SHOW MAN WITH 100 FLESH-EATING MAGGOTS IN HIS NOSE  

During 2015, there's been no shortage of viral videos that are enough to make even the most hardened people squeamish.

In this disturbing clip, a man had more than 100 flesh-eating maggots removed from his nose which would have destroyed his face, if left untreated.

As the gruesome video below reveals, the wriggling creatures were buried deep in the 65-year-old’s sinuses.

The man, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, was suffering from nasal myasis – where the nose and sinuses become infested with the larvae of flies.

The man came to hospital complaining he had seen what appeared to be worms emerging from his nose. It turned out had more than a hundred maggots buried in his sinuses Photo by: pictured

Doctors reporting on his case in the New England Journal of Medicine recorded the video after inserting a camera inside his nasal cavity.

He had come to them complaining, among other things, of worms coming out of his nose.  

Nasal myasis is where flies lay their eggs in or around a person’s nose, and they hatch into maggots.

The maggots feed off human flesh and if left untreated, can chew and destroy the bones and soft tissues of the face, nose and eyes.

This can lead to infection in the eyes and brain, and occasionally cause meningitis and even death.

He also had difficulty breathing and swelling around his nose and face.

After putting a camera into the man’s nose, more than 100 maggots were found in his left nasal cavity.

His nasal passage was red, filled with fluid, covered in ulcers and the tissue was crumbling.

Doctors cleared away the maggots individually, guided by a camera, and washed his nose out with a saline solution.

It took four days to clear the infestation, but after this time, the man’s symptoms went away and a final look with the camera confirmed they had all been removed.

WHY MEN REALLY ARE THE WEAKER SEX - AND IT'S THEIR MOTHER'S FAULT

We've argued about it for years but scientist (some of them men) this year revealed that the fairer sex are in fact stronger than their male counterparts.

Women regularly outlive the men in their lives and now experts think they know why.

They say that an accident to inheritance means that it is men, not women, who are the weaklings.

Geneticist Neil Gemmell says that mothers are cursing their sons by giving them defective DNA.

This DNA has subtle effects on everything from brain and heart health and muscle strength to fertility and so helps send men to an early grave.

The same DNA isn’t harmful to women, in fact it is ‘exquisitely adapted’ to their needs.

Geneticist Neil Gemmell says that mothers are cursing their sons by giving them defective DNA which leads them to die a few years before women

University of Otago researcher Neil Gemmell said: ‘I call it “mother’s curse”.

‘Men definitely are the weaker sex.’

Professor Gemmell’s theory, which will be more popular with one sex than the other, hinges around the DNA in mitochondria.

These are the the tiny ‘batteries’ that power our body’s cells and are especially bountiful in the heart, muscle, brain and other parts the body that use up a lot of energy.

Normally, both parents pass their genes to the next generation and any harmful mutations are eliminated over the generations because those who are carrying them have fewer children or die younger.

However, mitochondrial DNA is only passed on by daughters.

I call it “mother’s curse”. Men definitely are the weaker sex

Geneticist, professor Neil Gemmell 

A woman passes it to her sons and her daughters – but only her daughters pass it on to the next generation.

As the DNA passes down the female line, any DNA that is harmful women is eliminated.

But DNA that is damaging to men remains – leaving men at a disadvantage, said the professor.

This means they may be inheriting DNA that is bad for their heart, brain, muscle health and energy levels – helping explaining why men, on average, live three or four years less than women.

Professor Gemmell said: ‘It is an unfortunate aspect of maternal inheritance that male offspring are effectively cursed or bestowed with sub-optimal mitochondria.

‘I think of males as being an evolutionary cul-de-sac with respect to mitochondrial DNA. So we get it, we don’t pass it on to our offspring and we just have to make the most of it.’

His theory, presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology’s annual conference in Lisbon in June, draws on a decade of research from around the world on flies, fish and numerous other animals.