MEDICAL BAG
This month’s surgery of the strange includes a bone-hoarding surgeon, a sleep-shopper and a New Jersey hypnotist with wandering fingers
MYSTERY SHOPPER
Kelly Snipes of Basildon, Essex, would frequently wake up to find emailed receipts for items she had bought online the previous night, purchases for which she had no recollection. Her nocturnal shopping sprees began seven years before, with the onset of sleep apnoea after the birth of her first son Henry. Sleep apnoea causes people to suffer breathing difficulties while asleep and can be responsible for a number of symptoms. Mrs Snipes, 38, had been a sleepwalker as a child and would wake to find doors and windows opened during the night, but the apnoea exacerbated the problem.
She spent £3,000 on various items, including a full-sized basketball court bought on eBay, £58 worth of cookie jars, and hundreds of pounds worth of Haribo sweets. She had also bought items of young girls’ clothing, despite only having sons. Her credit card details were stored on her phone, which could be accessed by touch.
Trying to solve the problem,
Mrs Snipes asked her husband to stay awake at night to watch her sleep, but he kept falling asleep himself. Eventually she saw a specialist who diagnosed the problem, and prescribed a CPAP machine which she uses at night to increase her oxygen levels. So far, it has been successful in preventing further unconscious shopping sprees. echo-news.co.uk; Metro, 2 Oct 2020.
HYPNOTIST FINGERED
New Jersey “master hypnotist” Robert Bruckner was arrested for allegedly subjecting his patients to illegal prostate exams. Bruckner runs Major Mindset Hypnosis-Counseling, based in Fairfield, New Jersey, and offers his hypnotherapy services to adults, teenagers and children. He is not a licensed doctor. According to his website, he focuses on “academic, sports performance and medical hypnosiscounselling”, with programmes to help people lose weight, stop smoking, and alleviate stress or tension. His profile on PsychologyToday.com says he has been practising for eight years, listing ADHD, anxiety and children/adolescents as specialist areas, as well as a range of issues including chronic pain, “men’s issues” and self-esteem. Sessions cost between $295-$395 (£225-£300). “I can make problems go away”, his profile claims.
A joint investigation by Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and Fairfield police was launched after patients had reported Bruckner to police, describing therapy sessions during which the hypnotist had told them it was necessary to perform prostate examinations. It is unclear as yet whether the patients were under hypnosis during the assaults. Bruckner was arrested and charged with sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and practising medicine without a license. wsbtv.com; nypost.com, 2 Oct 2020.
ANIMAL CRACKERS
Researchers from the Flemish university KU Leuven have identified what they describe as a potentially under-reported mental illness, zoanthropy, whereby people believe themselves to be animals. A recent Belgian case of a 54-yearold woman who thought she was a chicken has highlighted the syndrome. The woman, who has no history of drug or alcohol abuse, was seen by her brother blowing out her cheeks and clucking and crowing like a rooster in her garden. Admitted to hospital, she affirmed her belief that she was a chicken, and described feeling new sensations in her limbs. After suffering a seizure, the delusion vanished and the woman was reportedly embarrassed by the episode.
Examining historical and medical records from between 1850 and 2012, the researchers found only 56 instances of zoanthropy, with patients believing themselves to be, variously, a bee, bird, boar, cat, cow, crocodile, dog, frog, gerbil, goose, horse, hyena, lion, rabbit, rhinoceros, shark, snake or tiger. Their research paper linked the condition with established psychiatric diagnoses like schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder, although it is unusual for patients with these psychotic illnesses to have their symptoms alleviated. Zoanthropy symptoms may last from an hour to several decades. Guardian, 29 July 2020.
BRAIN-EATING AMOEBA
Residents of Lake Jackson, Texas, were warned not to use their domestic water for any purpose except to flush the toilet after a ‘brain-eating’ amoeba was detected in the city’s water supply.
Nægleria fowleri was suspected to be present in the local water supply after sixyear-old Josiah McIntyre died on 8 September. Three out of 11 water samples tested positive for genetic material related to the amoeba, including a test of a water hose tap at McIntyre’s
home. The other two positive samples were taken from a fire hydrant and the civic centre fountain, where the boy had been playing in late August before becoming ill.
The organism is found in warm fresh water, including lakes, rivers and hot springs, in addition to soil. Drinking contaminated water does not lead to infection, but accidental ingestion through the nostrils is usually how nægleria fowleri enters the body, from where it can travel to the brain, causing a condition known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare but potentially lethal disease. Symptoms are similar to those of bacterial meningitis, and include severe headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting and disorientation. In the disease’s later stages, seizures, hallucinations and coma may ensue. abc13.com, 26 Sept 2020.
THE BONE COLLECTOR
Derek McMinn, a worldrenowned surgeon who pioneered the hip resurfacing technique that doctors later used to save Andy Murray’s tennis career, has been revealed to have collected and stored thousands of patients’ body parts. A leaked report showed that over a period of 25 years, McMinn – who has treated politicians, sports stars, and celebrities – kept the bones of at least 5,224 patients he had operated on. He apparently admitted to hospital bosses he had been keeping patient bones at his seven-bedroom farmhouse in Worcestershire, as well as at his business premises in Birmingham, with the full knowledge of his colleagues. He said he had kept the bones “for his retirement”, and hospital staff told investigators the body parts were intended to “keep his mind active”. He did not have a licence to store body parts, and had not obtained proper consent from patients or relatives.
Nurses, theatre staff and doctors in Birmingham’s Edgbaston Hospital, where the surgeon carried out most of his operations, were apparently aware of what he was doing. Some staff even helped put bones from patients in special pots for McMinn’s staff, according to the internal report for BMI Healthcare, who manage the hospital.
Because McMinn’s actions appear to have been in breach of the Human Tissue Act, the case has been referred to police. A hospital insider said: “It’s all been kept quiet, they’ve covered it up. There are lots of patients who haven’t been told and who don’t know he has their body parts. He was the goose that laid the golden egg. He generated an enormous amount of income for the hospital. He had been there a long time; it was almost his hospital really.
It is shocking how this was allowed to happen for so long.” Independent, 29 Sept 2020.