fact
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but never tried to make an antibiotic out of it. It was not until a decade later that a man named Howard Florey found Fleming’s little-known paper and realized the mold’s potential. Florey’s work is estimated to have saved up to 200,000,000 lives. 100
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but never tried to make an antibiotic out of it. It was not until a decade later that a man named Howard Florey found Fleming’s little-known paper and realized the mold’s potential. Florey’s work is estimated to have saved up to 200,000,000 lives. 00
A medieval English recipe was found to cure MRSA, an infection characterized by a resistance to antibiotics. It consists of wine, garlic, leek, and oxgall standing in a brass vessel for nine days. Each step “was crucial for its efficacy”. 00
In 1984, a woman started hearing a voice in her head. The voice told her she had a brain tumor, where the tumor was, and how to treat it. Despite no other symptoms, doctors eventually ordered tests and found a tumor where the voice said it would be. 00
Before the heart/lung machine was invented, a doctor oxygenated his patient’s blood by routing it through another person. Parents often served this purpose while their children had heart surgery. 00
Doctors from UCLA found unique blood cells that can help fight infections in a man from Seattle’s spleen, so they stole the cells from his body and developed it into medicine without paying him, getting his consent, or even letting him know they were doing it. 00
A teen needing a heart transplant was rejected in part because of his history of juvenile detention. A media outcry resulted in his getting a new heart, and later he died fleeing after a carjacking/burglary/shooting spree. 00
The “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” that swept the Internet in 2014 raised $115 million, of which 67% went to research, 20% to patient and community services, and 9% to public and professional education. In addition, the ALS Association has since tripled its annual budget for research. And the guy who started it is broke and […]
The first person to perform a cardiac catheterization was not allowed to perform the procedure on a patient, so he decided to perform it on himself and then walk all the way to the X-ray room with the catheter still in his arm to prove that the tube had reached his heart. 10
In 2003 an ER doctor in Idaho saved a patient’s life by performing emergency surgery with a cordless drill in a church parking lot to relieve pressure on his brain caused by internal bleeding. 00