Sunday, July 09, 2023

What medical peculiarity is unique in the history of medicine?

Malcolm MacDonald lived with a penis on his arm for 6 years.

He lost his real penis due to blood poisoning. His fingers and toes turned black and one day his penis fell off in front of his eyes and landed banally and definitively at his feet. The doctors had prepared Malcolm for this, so he was not surprised.

He disposed of his former penis in the garbage and had the stump treated in the hospital. His testicles were intact, which didn't do him much good. The father of two felt emasculated and subsequently took refuge in alcohol.

Then Professor David Ralph, an expert in urology, entered the scene and gave Malcolm new hope. He proposed a transplant to the penisless man. For this, he wanted to breed Malcolm with a new penis.

This is where the story finally becomes absurd.

For the penis implantation, the doctors take a vein from Malcolm's body, shape a penis with skin grafts and attach it to the forearm. Malcolm, by the way, demanded a penis of about 15 centimetres in length, two centimetres more than originally.

Normally, the penis is now separated from the forearm and placed in the place intended by nature. In Malcolm's case, various circumstances caused him to walk the world with the best piece in his arm for six years.

He told stories of how he burned his penis while cooking on the gas stove, how his penis slipped out of his sleeve at the supermarket, and how he accidentally slapped his penis in his grandmother's face when he hugged her in greeting.

The operation was a success.

After the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the operation was postponed even more often, it has now been successfully carried out. The penis is separated from the forearm and connected to a urethra on the body, allowing Malcolm to urinate.

In addition, his new penis is filled with a tube that can be controlled by means of a hand pump for erection. The penile implant consists of a saline reservoir that can be pumped in and out via a pump in the scrotum to make it erect and flabby.

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