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10 Strangest Health Stories of 2008

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1. FOXNews.com's biggest health clicker of 2008 was about a German retiree who took a hospital to court after she went in for a leg operation and got a new anus instead. The woman woke up to find she had been mixed up with another patient suffering from incontinence. That patient was scheduled to have surgery on her sphincter. As a result, the clinic in Hochfranken, Bavaria, suspended the surgical team.
2. Coming in at No. 2 is a story out of Arizona where doctors thought a Phoenix-area woman had a possible brain tumor, but it turned out there was something else penetrating her brain. Rosemary Alvarez started experiencing numbness in her arm and blurred vision. She went to the emergency room twice and had a CAT scan, but everything came up clear. It wasn't until doctors took a closer look at an MRI, that they discovered something very disturbing. Alvarez was wheeled into surgery where doctors removed a worm from her brain. No one knows exactly where she picked up the parasite, but doctors said worms can come from eating undercooked pork or be spread by people who don't wash their hands after using the bathroom.
3. A mother who decided to abort her son because he may have inherited a life-threatening kidney condition was overjoyed when he survived the procedure. Jodie Percival of Nottinghamshire, England, said she made the decision to abort baby Finley when she was eight weeks pregnant. Percival's first son died of multicystic dysplastic kidneys, and her second child, Lewis, was born with serious kidney damage. A short time after the procedure, Percival felt a fluttering in her stomach. She went to the doctor for a scan and discovered she was 19 weeks pregnant. "I couldn't believe it," Percival said. "This was the baby I thought I'd terminated." Finley was born three weeks premature - but is expected to lead a normal life.
4. In June, this story grabbed tons of attention with this headline: The New Club Drug: Preparation H? That's right. The topical medication used to treat hemorrhoids, was reportedly catching fire as the latest "drug" to hit the New York City club scene. The topical solution contains a medication called phenylephrine HCL, which shrinks the swollen tissues of hemorrhoids. It works by constricting the nearby blood vessels that surround the area. But the ingredient will shrink other tissue as well. A New York bouncer said men are slathering up their torsos with the hemorrhoid cream to make themselves look "ripped."
5. Rounding out the Top 5 is the story of baby Lali. She's shown in this photo at her home in Saini Sunpura, 31 miles east of New Delhi, India, Tuesday, April 8, 2008. She has two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes. She was born on March 11 in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess.
Mother Sushma holds her daughter Lali at their residence in Saini Sunpura, near New Delhi, India, Tuesday, April 8, 2008. Lali was born March 11 with two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.
Parents Sushma, left, and Vinod Singh pose with their daughter Lali at their home near New Delhi, India, Tuesday, April 8, 2008. Lali was was born with polycephaly, which means she has one body with two heads complete with four eyes and two mouths.
6. A tragic story out of the U.K. In November, a coroner in Britain determined that a 12-year-old boy died after using too much spray deodorant in a confined space. Daniel Hurley collapsed in January after spraying on Lynx deodorant in the bathroom of his Derbyshire home. An inquest was told that a "volatile" agent in the deodorant upset the boy's heart rhythm. He was hospitalized after the incident and died five days later from a cardiac arrhythmia.
7. Sliding in at our No. 7 spot is a disturbing story about a 49-year-old man who was suffering from abdominal pain in late May. Surgeons in Japan thought they were going to remove a tumor from the man, but instead they found a 25-year-old surgical towel that had crumpled into what looked like a softball-shaped tumor. The patient apparently had been carrying the cloth since 1983, when surgeons left it in him after minor ulcer surgery.
8. Doctors called her a medical miracle. In May, Val Thomas suffered two heart attacks and had no brain activity for more than 17 hours. Rigor mortis started to set in, and she was placed on a respiratory machine. Eventually, her family said their goodbyes and Thomas' tubes were removed, but she remained hooked up to a ventilator as the possibility of organ donation was discussed. However, Thomas woke up 10 minutes later and started talking. She was then transferred to the Cleveland Clinic so that specialists could check her out, but doctors said they could find nothing wrong with her. "I know God has something in store for me, another purpose," Thomas said. "I don't know what it is, but I'm sure he'll tell me."
9. An Australian man was operated on in Hornsby Hospital in Berowra in June where surgeons removed 16 stainless steel washers from "down under." Fire rescue officers were called to alleviate the man from his awkward predicament around 3 a.m. in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It was not clear how the man's situation arose, but fire rescue officers spent more than an hour unsuccessfully attempting to remove the washers. He was eventually taken to the hospital where surgeons removed the washers using fire brigade equipment. A hospital spokesman said equipment normally used to remove rings from fingers was ineffective because of the thicker nature of the washers.
10. And rounding out our "10 Strangest Health Stories of 2008" is actually a very inspiring story. Jessica Cox, of Tucson, Ariz., was born without arms, but that has only stopped her from doing one thing: using the word "can't." Her latest project is becoming the first pilot licensed to fly using only her feet. With one foot manning the controls and the other delicately guiding the steering column, Cox, 25, soared to achieve a Sport Pilot certificate. Her certificate qualifies her to fly a light-sport aircraft to altitudes of 10,000 feet. "She's a good pilot. She's rock solid," said Parrish Traweek, 42, the flying instructor at San Manuel's Ray Blair Airport.