“In retrospect, lighting the match was my mistake. But I was only trying to retrieve my son’s rat.” Dick Stone told doctors in the severe burns unit of San Francisco City Hospital. Admitted for emergency treatment after an attempt to retrieve the rat had gone seriously wrong, he explained, “My son left the cage door open, so his rat, Vermin, escaped into the garage. As usual, it looked for a good place to hide, and ran up the exhaust pipe of my motorcycle. I tried to retrieve Vermin by offering him food attached to a string, but he wouldn’t come out again, so I peered into the pipe and struck a match, thinking the light might attract him.”

At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what had happened next. “The flame ignited a pocket of residual gas and a flame shot out the pipe igniting Mr. Stone’s mustache and severely burned his face. It also set fire to the pet rat’s fur and whiskers which, in turn, ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the exhaust pipe which propelled the rodent out like a cannonball.” Stone suffered second- degree burns, and a broken nose from the impact of the pet rat. His son was grounded for 6 weeks.

– Another true story brought to you by the medical community.

Are you trying to decide what residency/specialty to go into? It can be a very difficult decision. And often its not entirely up to medical students. After all, we do have to gain an acceptance into the program we want. Anyways, someone sent this to me a while back. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Enjoy.

• One of life’s mysteries is how a two pound box of candy can make A person gain five pounds.
• Brain cells come and go but fat cells live forever.
• Life not only begins at forty, it begins to show.
• I had to give up jogging for my health. My thighs kept rubbing together and setting my pants on fire.
• Amazing! You just hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks two sizes.

A physics professor was explaining a complicated concept when a premed
student interrupted him.
“Why do we have to learn this stuff?” the young man blurted out.
“To save lives,” the professor replied.
“How does physics save lives?” the smartass student asked.
“Physics saves lives,” the professor said, “because it keeps certain people out of medical school.”

During a patient’s two week follow-up appointment with his cardiologist,
he informed me, his doctor, that he was having trouble with one of his
medications. “Which one?” I asked. “The patch, the nurse told me to put on a
new one every six hours and now I’m running out of places to put it!” I had
him quickly undress and discovered what I hoped I wouldn’t see. Yes, the man
had over fifty patches on his body! Now, the instructions include removal of
the old patch before applying a new one.

– Another true story brought to you by the medical community

One day I had to be the bearer of bad news when I told a wife that her husband had died of a massive myocardial infarct. Not more than five minutes later, I heard her reporting to the rest of the family that he had died of a “massive internal fart.”

– Another true story brought to you by the medical community

A distraught patient phoned her doctor’s office. “Is it true,” the woman wanted to know, “that the medication the doctor had prescribed was for the rest of my life?” She was told that it was. There was a moment of silence before the woman continued, “I’m wondering then just how serious is my condition? This prescription is marked ‘No Refills.'”

– Another true story brought to you by the medical community