The Woman Who Swallowed Her Cat: And Other Gruesome Medical Tales

by Rob Myers

Join Dr. Myers in his quest for unusual case studies as he unravels medical mysteries. • Depressed and lonely, a man decides that pills and alcohol are too gentle an exit. How did he end up in the driver’s seat without his head? • Drunken neighbours decide that beautifying the hedges on their property can be easily accomplished without hedge clippers. Removing the handlebars of a lawnmower, they lift the mower and its whirring gas powered blades, and quickly lose their buzz. • A teenager, obsessed with self-stimulation, elects to use uncooked spaghetti during his amorous exploits with disastrous consequences that only a urologist can deal with. • Vending machines are heavy and formidable foes; no match for an angry high school football player who wants his dollar back. • Pool balls are round, smooth, and heavy, qualities that make them very difficult to remove from locations they should never have been placed. • Chlorine is a concentrated toxin. Very little is required to sanitize a pool. What happens when you swim in the wrong liquid? • Sexual escapades have been known to include all varieties of farm animals. But is it possible to fulfill one’s carnal desires with a John Deere tractor? • A fisherman hooks a flopping one pounder, and both die in the process without jumping into the lake. In The Woman Who Swallowed Her Cat, Dr. Myers presents intriguing, humorous, unbelievable, and dark vignettes of real medical life. You’ll be surprised by the truth as patients present to their doctors with usual symptoms that are masking very unusual diagnoses, and you’ll be left wondering how anyone in the world could be affected by these one-of-a-kind medical maladies.

Genres: Medical, Nonfiction, Medicine

314 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Kade Gulluscio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, because I usually do love books with unique medical stories.
But these stories were ... kind of messy? They were scattered, not told well, sometimes ended abruptly, etc.

It wasn't a terrible book, but the author could have made this so much better in many ways .. ;/

[Klinta · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was pretty horrible and doctors like this are the reason why some people who are in need of a medical attention are scared or ashamed to seek it.

The judgemental attitude and unnecessary patronising comments and/or additions to the story were just nasty. It could be a cool book about unfortunate events bringing attention to mental illness and substance abuse, but it turned out to be a disgusting piece of work by a doctor who is earning money describing people who he despises.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

The tone of this book is almost exactly the same as 1000 Ways to Die, which was a great show, but it realllly doesn't work for me in written form. Plus there's a lot of entirely unnecessary and strangely judgmental background information about the people in these stories that just made me roll my eyes. "The technician, a devout Muslim who considered homosexuality the behaviour of deviants, opened the door and wheeled Jamal inside." This little tidbit doesn't add anything to the story, because she just did her job and was never mentioned again, so who gives a shit? Is it really necessary for us to be reminded that some people might not approve of how the patient lives his life? Or in a different story, after the doctor couldn't identify a mass in a patient's breast: "She's from Africa, so this has to be something infectious." No - it doesn't have to be something infectious. Africa doesn't have a monopoly on infectious diseases! The common cold is an infectious disease! You can take into account a patient's travel history and consult with colleagues without perpetuating the idea that Africa is just a seething hotbed of disease. Even airport customs asks about specific countries and not the ENTIRE CONTINENT and only when there ACTUALLY IS an outbreak. Just because the doctor was right in this case doesn't mean that all African people with symptoms you can't identify right away have an infectious disease (from Africa...because again there are plenty of infectious diseases an African person could have picked up in Canada).

Also I thought it was kind of weird that this book used the gimmick of having one of the stories be made-up. Especially since the page you're directed to to vote on which story you think is a lie is a 404 error. So I can't even talk about any of these stories being real because I have no idea which one isn't. This is a small issue but it still annoyed me.

[Anna Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED it. If you can "love" something this odd and gruesome and cringe-inducing.

What makes this collection more gruesome and riveting than many others in the same vein is the connection we make with the person in the story: They're going about their daily life, just like you or I, but we know that something is coming. Unlike in popular crime shows, we don't know what that something is until after we're introduced to a character - one with hopes, fears, and idiosyncrasies.

Most non-fiction medical and crime stories I can think of tend to focus on the event, condition, or investigation, and sideline the victim into a corpse, a patient, a curiosity. This volume puts much more emphasis on what led to their illness and/or demise - the external factors, environment, thoughts and feelings of the person who made what we would scoffingly dismiss as stupid - so that they are whole people like you or someone you know. In context, the people don't always seem quite as stupid. Okay, they still seem stupid, but at least we can understand the thinking behind what made it "seem like a good idea at the time".


I found myself often wondering how fictionalized the author's accounts are, and wished for a more detailed introduction or afterword. In reviewing patient charts, did he contact friends and relatives for insights and behaviours? Did he take the personal history notes and embellish them into a whole picture? Did he use his firsthand knowledge, conversations with people directly involved in similar cases, and compose a narrative based on the thoughts and feelings they had shared with him? Or maybe all three, or something I haven't even considered?

The only thing that seems to be missing is some indication of when (general time period) and where (country) each incident took place. It's not something that's required, but given the attention to small details already provided, a general where and when would help put the life of each unfortunate person into even clearer context.

[Shushan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to stop reading this because it read like the intimately detailed diary of a circus manager as opposed to one of a medically interesting one. I felt like I was held captive in the witnessing of the unfortunate demise of an even more unfortunate group of people. It felt peep-showy as such I did not actually finish the book and even returned it to get a less witness the unfortunate dramatic deaths of people and a more check out ways we can save lives kind of book. There goes my dream of being a pathologist (all jokes).

But of course it's like that saying goes, 'to each their own', if you're the type of person who will ask questions like 'what are some of the craziest cases you've ever seen' or 'tell me an interesting way someone died' this book is definitely for you!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the style of this book - each chapter is a short story that just happens to be non-fiction (as unbelievable as some may seem!)
It’s cleverly done so that even though there is explanation of the medical side of the story, it doesn’t get bogged down in jargon.
There are some weird stories, some gross ones and some amusing ones - some with fatalities and some with lessons learned.

[Sydney More · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I love true medical tales, this compilation came off as silly to me; the humour was kind of crass, but not successful enough for the raunch to be enjoyable. I really disliked that one of the stories was fabricated, because it left me doubting the veracity of each while I read it.

[Karla Verdin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminds me of the show "1000 ways to die" that comes out on the Spike channel. It is unbelievable the situations that people will get themselves into, yet at times I found it quite comical. I'm not sure everything that I read in this book is factual. I think the author, Dr. Rob Myers, read through some medical cases, picked the most intriguing ones he could find and added a little story to each case to make it more fascinating. If you've ever watched "1000 ways to die" then you would understand the tone of this book: not meant to be taken too seriously, but rather as comedy. Hmm I don't know but that's the sense that I got. Nonetheless, it was an entertaining read.

[Mary-Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really don't know why I'm reading this. It was in the food writing section of non-fiction...now I find I can't get off this runaway train. Sigh.

[RedGhost · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who are at the same time grossed out and mesmerised by weird ways people injure themselves or even die and you just have to see it.
I do wonder which story is pure fiction though. Almost all sounded surreal, but knowing that medicine really doesn't know it all, to be able to act in timely fashion, and also knowing there are darwing awards, and youtuber Chubbyemu with similar stories shared, yeah all stories seemed weirdly plausible.
I do like Chubbyemu a bit more, because he goes more into medical perspective, unlike in this book which focuses more on people background.
For those who live by "curiosity killed the cat"... not for people with low treshold for gross. And I can see how these stories might interweave into dreams and/or nightmares. So thread carefully.

I actually stumbled upon it because it had cat in its title, and I was intrigued (plus I like to watch Chubbyemu and learn a thing or two about bizarre illnesses)

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although some chapters were pretty interesting, I found it unnecessarily vulgar in style. I also did not like that one of the stories was fake but, as far as I know, there's no way to know which one.

[Diet Coca · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Rocio Hague · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting, whether the people died/ or nearly survived by their stupidity or an undiagnosed ailment it was funny and super interesting! If you like Mystery diagnosis and 1,000 ways to Die this is the book for you!!

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books title says it all, there are some VERY gruesome tales in this book. I like the fact that a medical explanation is included with each case. Apparently one story is false, but I have no idea which one, chances are it is the least disgusting.

[Christi · Rating 2 out of 5]

too gruesome