Dire News

There are lots of reasons that a drain might clog. Grease and hair can build up over time. Sometimes foreign objects make their way into a pipe.

You never know what a kid might flush down. The plumbing was particularly noisy in one building in Jinhua in the coastal province of Zhejiang when residents reported the sound of a baby crying. They heard the cries from a waste pipe on the fourth floor. Firemen sawed away at the four-inch-wide pipe just below a ceiling in which the boy was trapped. The rescuers then rushed the section of pipe to a hospital. A drain snake wasn't available, so firemen and surgeons used pliers and saws to get the baby out of the pipe. The boy’s arms were pinned to his side and when the pipe was pried away, he let out a long wail at the Pujiang County People’s Hospital in Jinhua, eastern China. He was still attached to the placenta. The baby was covered with sewage, and had a skull fracture. The mother could face a charge of attempted murder. A police officer said she had hidden her pregnancy and claimed  the baby fell into the toilet after she unexpectedly gave birth. "The woman was on the scene during the entire rescue process, and admitted she was the mother when we asked her." He said police were still investigating whether she had any malicious intentions before deciding on charges. The baby, referred to as "Baby 59" for the incubator he occupies, is in stable condition and expected to recover.

Bowlegs is a condition in which the knees stay wide apart when a person stands with the feet and ankles together. It is considered normal in children under 18 months, as the legs begin to straighten once the child starts to walk and the legs bear his weight. By around age 3, the child can usually stand with the ankles apart and the knees just touching. If the bowed legs are still present, the child is called bowlegged. Bowlegs may be caused by illnesses such as:

• Abnormal bone development
• Blount's disease
• Fractures that do not heal correctly
• Lead or fluoride poisoning
• Rickets, which is caused by a lack of vitamin D

Bow legs may be useful for some professions. If the case isn't extreme, often nothing is done. But sometimes surgery is indicated. Bowlegs do not go away and if not treated, may lead to arthritis in the knees or hips, and hip joint damage.

Braces are used to gradually lengthen the bones and straighten them.

The brace usually has to be attached to the bones, so holes are made to pass the bolts and wires through.

The bones move around 1 mm/day and the procedure can take four to six months.

The excruciating pain goes away after a few weeks and will hopefully eliminate the need for hip or knee surgery later on.

While the freight was being offloaded from the trailer, the truck driver was walking through the warehouse, having just left the break room. A forklift was unloading the trailer next to it; the driver didn't realize the truck driver was there. The forklift ran over the truck driver's left foot.and struck him with the frame, throwing him forward. The forklift came to rest with the truck driver's foot under a tire.

There was severe damage to the left foot and ankle.

The crushed toe was removed from his foot.

Thanks to the surgeon, it's almost like new.

"Every moment is a fork in the road. The path you take will shape your future."  

Advertising has accustomed us to disappointment. The picture doesn't always reflect reality.   Although the optimists among us hope otherwise, we know that the picture on the box is a "serving suggestion.

When it's a manufactured product, you might expect a photograph of the actual item, possibly even shown in use. But like a Whopper, the actual product might not resemble the picture. At least the people are real. As Heisenberg taught us, the more precisely we can identify the subject, the less certain we are of its location. It looks like the boys are having a good time. But we're not going to be fooled by the picture on the box and run out and buy one of these.

From Marlin Perkins on Wild Kingdom to The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, nature programs have been a staple of television for decades. The danger was never more apparent than when Steve Irwin was viciously penetrated by a Manta Ray. One of the inheritors of the wild kingdom is Bear Gryllis of Man vs. Wild. Eating insects and drinking urine made him an unlikely international star rather than a circus geek. After all of his time in the wild, he knows the dangers. But behind the camera, he's backed up by a production crew. One of the producers is Steve Rankin, and he was on location for a recording of a new series Naked and Afraid. As he was climbing over a fallen tree, a Fer de Lance, adeadly poisonous Pit Viper, bit his foot through his boot. It took two hours to get him to a hospital. He needed an extensive skin graft to repair the damage. The tissue came from his thigh. First they had to remove the necrotic flesh and expose the remaining good tissue. Then they stapled the remains closed in preparation for the skin graft. Rankin is recovering, but so far there is no report on the condition of his foot. We expect he'll heal eventually, taking it one step at a time.

Northgate Vehicle Sales, in Darlington, County Durham, UK  was having a chain link fence erected. They hired a contractor to install the fence but failed to apply for plans showing the location of the underground utilities. Tom Sharp didn't know about the high voltage cables that ran underneath. So he was shocked when his jackhammer hit an 11,000 volt cable. The burns he suffered were so severe that his clothes seared to his skin causing 20 per cent burns to his arms, face and neck. He spent more than a month in hospital receiving treatment for his wounds. He is still receiving therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his experiences. Northgate Vehicle Sales admitted that it was up to them to get the plans showing the cables and they did not do so. "Staff did not believe there were cables in the area because the company has no need for high-voltage power and there is no sub-station nearby." said their attorney.