Curious Case Vault #3 - A Non-Fatal 19th Century Gunshot Wound to the Head

Behavioral health is certainly within the bounds of medicine and, thereby, medical history. The Stanford Prison Experiment asked the question of whether the environment of prison compelled bad behavior from those within the system. In order to study this, this 1970's university psychology experiment went to extreme lengths to turn its research subjects (students) into faux prisoners and prison guards in the basement of the department's building. 

It might not surprise you to find out that it did not go well. 

Ethics in research are indeed important, as you'll appreciate after listening to this one.

References:

1. Wikipedia Page on the Stanford Prison Experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
2. PDF of original publication of the Stanford Prison Experiment: http://pdf.prisonexp.org/ijcp1973.pdf
3. Psychology Today interview with Philip Zimbardo: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/articles/200009/emperor-the-edge
4. Wikipedia Page on Philip Zimbardo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo
5. Incarceration Rates Reference: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAiP2tBhBXEiwACslfnvW5miAa1VS0WqISsYuBYwIY52hMWPMlcVUG3Kbs_xNgzE4pG2DAuxoC6gMQAvD_BwE
6. For further reading: The Milgram Experiment Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
7. “The Stanford Prison Experiment” website: https://www.prisonexp.org/
8. New Yorker Magazine Column, ‘The Real Lessons of The Stanford Prison Experiment’: https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-real-lesson-of-the-stanford-prison-experiment
9. One of many bootlegs on YouTube of a BBC documentary on the experiment containing actual video footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4txhN13y6A
10. Hawthorne Effect, wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
11. PDF of October 1971 Congressional Testimony by Zimbardo: http://pdf.prisonexp.org/congress.pdf
12. Preprint of Haslam’s Article, “Identity Leadership in the Stanford Prison Experiment”, in press in American Psychologist: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/b7crx to avoid paywall, noted on PubMed here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31380665/

#medicalhistory #medicine #history #podcast

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

If you're like me (Dr. Max) and the words "Dropkick Murphy" conjure images of the legendary Boston-based punk rock band, you might be surprised to know the history behind that name.

In this interview, Dr. Max sat down to interview Emily Sweeney, a staff reporter for the Boston Globe and author of a book on Dr. John "Dropkick" Murphy, who was not only a pioneering physician of earlier 20th century alcohol treatment, but was also a professional wrestler of his day.   

This is an amazing book about a man who lived an amazing life.  It's got medical history, professional wrestling and boxing history, punk rock, and many stops in between.  We think you'll enjoy.

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**Do yourself a favor and use this link to get this excellent book: https://amzn.to/3T0Kgyp

Emily's newest project: The Cold Case Files (a regular series in the Boston Globe about unsolved murders).

Subscribe to her Cold Case Files Newsletter to stay up to date.

To follow and check out Emily Sweeney's other works:
Twitter/X: @emilysweeney
Instagram: @emilysweeney22
Threads: @emilysweeney22
Website and Other Books: https://linktr.ee/emilysweeney22
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#medicalhistory #punkrock #prowrestling #dropkickmurphys

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

He conquered many lands, sailed many seas, and was finally awarded his own Netflix miniseries, but at the age of 32, the ruler of Macedonia known throughout the ages as Alexander the Great, died in the palace of a Babylonian king shortly after a night of partying. There have been numerous potential explanations as to what happened.  In this episode we'll review the case and the leading thoughts as to what brought down this renowned military leader.

Announcement:
Dr. Max is on Twitch! A lifelong gamer and proud nerd, he'll be streaming on Twitch twice per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) at 8:00pm CST, hoping to eventually raise money for charity.  Stop on by to hang out and chat about medicine or just about any other topic with him. 

Check him out and give a follow there if that's your thing - DrMaxwell_MKE @: https://www.twitch.tv/drmaxwell_mke


Sources:
(Primary Source) Case Presentation: https://archive.hshsl.umaryland.edu/bitstream/handle/10713/6826/AlexanderTheGreat_1996.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Overview: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9078372/

Alex the Great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great

GBS: https://www.history.com/news/alexander-the-great-death-cause-discovery

GBS2: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190122115006.htm

Early pronouncement of death: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/was-alexander-great-pronounced-dead-prematurely-180971419/

Pancreatitis:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6826792/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537191/

#alexanderthegreat
#medicinepodcast 
#medicalhistory 
#history 
#podcast 
#historypodcast 

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

This is a fascinating dive into the world of genetics, set against a backdrop of a curious dermatology finding, and ending with one of the most interesting and convoluted paternity cases you may ever hear about.  The Maury show has nothing on this one, trust us.

Mike suggested this episode be titled "This is Chimerica!" or "Have you Heard About the Lady Whose DNA was a Chimera? No, Sounds Greek to Me!"

I used my editorial powers to override him.

Sources:
-Cicada Films. “The Twin Inside Me.” Youtube, uploaded by Real Stories, 46:28. Posted December 18, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFf5gKiTGlo&vl=en.
-George, Renjith, Preethy Mary Donald, Sumanth Kumbargere Nagraj, Jose Joy Idiculla, and Rashid Hj Ismail. "The Impact Of Chimerism In DNA-Based Forensic Sex Determination Analysis." The Malaysian Journal Of Medical Sciences 20 (2013): 76.
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(mythology)

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

This episode of the Curious Case Vault has an admittedly grim premise--a patient who suffered two gunshot wounds to the head.  In this discussion, Alba leads us through a case of a young Brooklyn, NY man who, in the spring of 1888, sustained what could have been a devastating injury in any time in history. 

In his case, we'll see how the neurosurgeon of the time treated this patient leading to an amazing if not inspiring outcome.  We'll talk about the evolution of this type of neurosurgical trauma care and form an appreciation for the resilience of the human brain to trauma of this sort.

Case Link:
This case comes to us from the archives of the Brooklyn Medical Journal and Retrospect of the Medical Sciences. Vol 1_1888 (Jan-Jun): 476-477.

Sources:
Modern Neurosurgical Overview for Gunshot Wounds to the Head from the AANS.

Historic Overview of Neurosurgical Treatments for this injury at the turn of the 19th century available via this article by Agarwalla, et al.

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

Rabies is a fascinating and frightening infectious disease.  It has a long history in the natural world and stories involving a case of it rarely end on a happy note.  

It just so happens there is at least one such story.  In this episode we'll talk about one of the only documented cases of survival from this viral infection.  We'll discuss the disease itself, how it works, how it's prevented, and how, at least once, it was successfully treated right here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Sources:

1. Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus, Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
2. Willoughby Article: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa050382
3. Milwaukee Protocol Rebuttal: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26639059/
4.  Wikipedia Rabies Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

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Fan shop shout-out!

Check out Jai's online shop mentioned here: https://www.fabfroufrou.com/
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#Milwaukee #rabies #infectiousdisease #medicalhistory #medicine #history #podcast

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

The 1920's was a time in the U.S. when anybody with a clever sales pitch and a willingness to pull a patent could devise a concoction and call it a "medication."  Unfortunately, the heyday of the "patent medicine" era coincided with the discovery of radium before the downstream consequences of radioactivity were known.  The wealthy industrialist, Eben Byers found himself unwittingly the victim of the hazardous set of circumstances.  This is the story of how a patented substance called Radithor, which was sold through doctors as a medication, helped play a part in bringing an end to this time of unregulated pharmaceutical madness.

Sources: 

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,743525,00.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._A._Bailey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Byers

https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/radioactive-quack-cures/pills-potions-and-other-miscellany/radithor.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20160113201140/http://www.alleghenycemetery.com/images/newsletter/newsletter_XIII_1.pdf

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph241/yoon2/

https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/research/news_and_pubs/caravel/archive/2020_fall/2020_medicalknowledge.php

#quackmedicine #medicalhistory #medicine #history #podcast #Radithor #radium

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

A 30 year old woman in 1842 comes down with an awful gastrointestinal illness and a physician is called.  He recounts the case in this article and asks if this might have been something called "Cholera Morbus."  We'll go through the case, talk about causes for this sort of thing, and do our best to guess the diagnosis.  The approach to treating the disease in the 1840's was interesting, if nothing else. 

Did we miss anything?  Have a thought about the case?  Send us a message about it via email or social media.

This case comes to us from the archives of the Provincial Medical Journal and Retrospect of the Medical Sciences. 1842 Dec 3; 5(114): 189–190.

Case Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2490115/

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

This unusual, recurrent epidemic illness has popped its head in and out of the annals of history.  It goes by many names: the English Sweats, coma somnolentum, Schlafkrankheit ("sleep sickness"), and the Nona, to name a few. 

The last time it was widespread was during the influenza pandemic of 1915-1926, but medical case studies and reports of recurrent epidemcis date back to the 16th century. 

Is it a new viral or bacteral illness?  Or something more complicated? 

We'll do our best to sort it out in this episode of the show.

Sources:
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalitis_lethargica

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Sacks

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awakenings

-Encephalitis lethargica: 100 years after the epidemic: Brain, Volume 140, Issue 8, August 2017, Pages 2246–2251, https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx177

-https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/140/8/2246/3970828?login=false

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.

Let's do a neurologic case featuring  an American music legend who sought help after developing unusual headaches and a distorted sense of smell.  We'll figure out what happened and who it is in this installment!  

Avoid clicking through the references if you wish to keep the mystery intact. 

References

1. https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2817%2931623-9 Lancet Letter
2.  Wikipedia Page for the mystery patient.
3. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00415-011-6034-9 Duret biography, Journal of Neurology
4. https://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/blog/archive/2014/The-Babinski-Sign.html The Babinski Sign summary, Stanford Med 

#medicalhistory #medicine #history #podcast #neurosurgery #GeorgeGershwin

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DrMaxwell_MKE (gaming on Twitch.tv) - Dr. Max's side project playing retro games and a few modern games on Tuesdays and Thursdays (8pm CST). Stop by, hang out, chat about medicine or any other things.