Doctors write case reports to help call rare conditions to the attention of their peers, or to highlight patients whose diagnoses ended up being a bit of a puzzle. Case reports can shed light on emerging trends, hinting at when a condition might be becoming more common. They can also point out treatments that seem to work for diseases that have very few therapeutic options. At Live Science, our writers and editors highlight a report each week to raise awareness of these cases, and in the process, shed light on how the human body works and what happens when things go awry.
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Woman 'saw dead people' and fired a gun at them after taking too many aspirinDiagnostic Dilemma Before visiting the emergency room, a woman fired a gun at hallucinations triggered by over-the-counter pills.
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Woman's 5-year struggle with balance and walking was caused by a 'one-in-a-million' disorderDiagnostic Dilemma A woman developed severe stiffness in her knees, along with a range of other symptoms. Blood tests revealed her very rare disorder.
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Weird spikes poking through a teen's eyelid turned out to be a wayward toothDiagnostic Dilemma A 16-year-old developed swelling over his eye, and doctors later discovered that it was caused by a tooth that had grown in the wrong place.
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A man's sudden fainting episodes landed him in the hospital — and a hair dye was to blameDiagnostic Dilemma A man's fainting spells and collapsing blood pressure sent doctors searching for signs of a stroke or heart attack before they found a far more ordinary culprit.
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Fisher's colon punctured by eel that snuck in through his rectumDiagnostic Dilemma A man's intestines were perforated in an "exceedingly rare" medical case involving a live eel.
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A woman got a lung transplant — and ended up with a peanut allergy, tooDiagnostic dilemma After an organ transplant, a woman developed a new food allergy.
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A man tried to self-treat his incontinence by gluing his urethra shutDiagnostic Dilemma A man attempted to self-treat his incontinence via unorthodox means and ended up needing surgery.
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A joyful wedding nearly broke a woman's heart in a rare case of 'happy heart syndrome'Diagnostic dilemma A 65-year-old woman arrived at the ER with textbook signs of a heart attack — but the real trigger turned out to be joy, not a blocked artery.
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Doctors performed surgery to remove a mass in a woman's gut — and a bug-like creature immediately jumped outDiagnostic dilemma In a strange case, doctors removed a mass from a woman's digestive tract and encountered a live organism they didn't expect.
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