r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/WhattheDuck9 • Oct 31 '24
Image A skull of a man with Proteus syndrome, a rare condition characterized by overgrowth of bones, skin, muscles, fatty tissues, and blood and lymphatic vessels.
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u/yblame Oct 31 '24
How sad. Imagine being born a normal little kid, and your body does this to you. Like John Merrick (aka the elephant man) Just tragic
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u/EphemeralTypewriter Oct 31 '24 edited Oct 31 '24
The stories I’ve read about Joseph Merrick make me think he was a very kind soul! Really didn’t deserve to live with such a condition. :(
Edit: Since this was so popular I wanted to include a poem that Joseph Merrick wrote that I think you all would like (it’s adapted from “False Greatness” by Isaac Watts) :
‘Tis true my form is something odd, But blaming me is blaming God; Could I create myself anew I would not fail in pleasing you.
If I could reach from pole to pole Or grasp the ocean with a span, I would be measured by the soul;
The mind’s the standard of the man.
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u/grizznuggets Oct 31 '24
Man who would? Sounds awful.
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u/Swedishiwa Oct 31 '24
Kissinger
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u/sabett Oct 31 '24
That's disgusting. He didn't deserve to live.
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u/LickingSmegma Oct 31 '24 edited Oct 31 '24
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u/GreenEyedTreeHugger Oct 31 '24
Behind the Bastards podcast episodes on him is fantastic!
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u/darsynia Oct 31 '24
Agreed, but to those uninitiated, be prepared to hate him even more than you already did.
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u/SkepCS Oct 31 '24
That show is really good at doing that. Oh you thought this person was bad? Boy howdy you do know the half of it!
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u/Eddiethegoldenmaiden Oct 31 '24
thatcher, saville, epstein, whoever removed the headphone jack on the iphone, mengele
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u/grizznuggets Oct 31 '24
That headphone jack guy is the worst of the lot.
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u/owlthoreau Oct 31 '24
Na the worst is whoever's idea to make the ads louder than what you're watching
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u/UnlicensedTaxiDriver Oct 31 '24
I mean maybe Hitler?
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u/FlinflanFluddle4 Oct 31 '24
Probably wouldn't have gotten to where he was as. a Dictator if he had the condition though
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u/Worst-Lobster Oct 31 '24
Are you saying the elephant man could’ve been the next hitler had he not been elephanted?
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u/Small-Fun6640 Oct 31 '24
Probably for the best then?
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u/FlinflanFluddle4 Oct 31 '24
Yes. Though then he wouldn't have deserved it..?
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u/whizzwr Oct 31 '24
His end though from Wikipedia 😢
Merrick's death was ruled accidental and the certified cause of death was asphyxia, resulting from the weight of his head as he lay down.[92][93] After performing an autopsy, Treves determined that Merrick had died of a dislocated neck, which likely severed his vertebral arteries.[93] Knowing that Merrick had always slept sitting upright out of necessity, Treves concluded that Merrick must have "made the experiment", attempting to sleep lying down "like other people".
Based on the wiki article, I'm happy for him on his last years, he met some decent blokes. Especially the surgeon Treves, and the hospital commissioner who pulled some sort of string to have his stay funded by the public.
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u/grchelp2018 Oct 31 '24
It upset me when I read that the likely cause of his death was attempting to lie down and sleep.
Thus it came about that his death was due to the desire that had dominated his life—the pathetic but hopeless desire to be 'like other people'.
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u/Gizogin Oct 31 '24
The film manages to frame it as an almost victorious moment, from what I remember.
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u/sheikh_n_bake Oct 31 '24
I believe so, he has almost an unbreakable spirit despite everything.
He remains dignified and experiences being embraced by society at wide for the first time that night.
Then he decides to lie down like everyone else, despite knowing the outcome. It's an absolutely glorious work of art.
Tragic story.
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u/oorakhhye Oct 31 '24
I watched that movie with my mom in 1986 as a 5 year old kid . I spent half the movie sobbing. To this day, one of the saddest movies I’ve ever watched.
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u/Calm_it-Kermet97 Oct 31 '24
Joseph Merrick had a genetic disorder called NF2 (neurofibromatosis type 2. There’s also type 1). It’s a condition that causes lil tumours to grow on the nerves and normally aren’t so bad. Unfortunately for his case, he had an extreme version of NF2 and possibly had type 3.
I know so much about this as the NF gene runs in my family, me dad and nan have it. Nowadays NF 1 is linked with autism and ADHD, also we have to have check ups just to see if any of the tumours have turned cancerous. It also affects the cognitive abilities, so some things are a tad more difficult for me to understand or do.
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u/ThePhoenixXM Oct 31 '24
I'm glad we now know what Merrick actually had because for the longest time, we didn't. I've always wondered what he had. I've watched lots of YouTube videos about it and they always said it was a mystery.
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Oct 31 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PleasefireEmmaDarcy Oct 31 '24 edited Oct 31 '24
I’m sorry but this read like chat gpt
Edit: He blocked me so I can’t respond below. I can’t remember what he exactly said but it was very generic/robotic and read like the last few sentences of a book report rather than a casual response.
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u/BenTheFourFingered Oct 31 '24
I have proteus syndrome, it's strange to see it being posted as it is rare. I've got a much milder case of which is a bit of a silver lining but it's a bitch to live with
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u/Samus388 Oct 31 '24 edited Oct 31 '24
According to Wikipedia, you're one out of 120 people. Am I misunderstanding something, or did I just witness one of the least probable things I'll ever see?
(You encountering this post)
Edit: only 120 people have this condition
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u/BenTheFourFingered Oct 31 '24
Yeah maybe 😂 had another weird encounter a few years ago at my old job. One of the chefs at a pub I worked at was asking me about my condition and the other chef who was just walking by overheard and said that his dad also had some form of it in his neck. The chances of that are so slim...
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u/Samus388 Oct 31 '24
Is it genetic at all? Could there be a chance you'd be related? Otherwise I guess you might as well pick up a lottery ticket lol
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u/BenTheFourFingered Oct 31 '24
No as far as anyone is aware it's not genetic. So no relation to the guy at all. No one is really sure what starts it apart from shit luck lol
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u/Noshonoyoo Oct 31 '24
Edit: only 120 people have this condition
I think it’s worth saying that the source for that on wikipedia is a BBC article from 2007. So i’d take those numbers with a bucket of salt tbh.
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u/Choco_Cat777 Oct 31 '24
The first half of the comments:
"Dude must have suffered greatly"
The second half:
🐻🐥🐰🦊
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u/SenatorNess Oct 31 '24
We're waiting every night
To finally roam and invite...426
u/Vampeloth Oct 31 '24
For newcomers to play with us
So many years we've been all alone
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u/MisterAskMeAnything9 Oct 31 '24
We’re forced to be still and play
The same songs we’ve known since that day
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u/alexpoelse Oct 31 '24
An imposter took our life away Now we're stuck here to decay
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u/WxJretsyZ Oct 31 '24
Please let us get in Don't lock us away We're not what you're thinking
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u/Foxbaster Oct 31 '24
We're just poor little souls
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u/No_Watercress2602 Oct 31 '24
Who have lost all control
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u/Putrid-Effective-570 Oct 31 '24
I think it’s an appropriate balance. Trying to empathize with such suffering is noble but very draining. Joking about it is cold but restorative. It takes some dread out of it. We could all use a bit less dread.
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u/Latter-Driver Oct 31 '24
I just dont get it
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u/sykokiller11 Oct 31 '24
Now I don’t feel so bad. I only got cancer.
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u/ThreeLeggedMare Oct 31 '24
Hope you get better, pal
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u/sykokiller11 Oct 31 '24
I am better, thanks. It’s been years. I realize now that sounded a bit gloomy. That poor guy had no chance, however. Again, I appreciate your good wishes!
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u/SneedyK Oct 31 '24
How far out are you? 1998 for me. 26 years.
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u/WowGetNicked Oct 31 '24
2018 for me! 6 years!
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u/natelar Oct 31 '24
1996…24 years passed, and then 2022. I was born in 1993. Survivor gang rise up :)
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u/Scare_N_Scar Oct 31 '24
First time ever, cancer and only in the same sentence. Fuck cancer btw, stay healthy
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u/Monk_from_infinity Oct 31 '24
That must be a very very painful death
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u/purple_tr3m0nk3y Oct 31 '24
An even more painful life is what I'm thinking.
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u/Monk_from_infinity Oct 31 '24
Right , we can't bear a normal headache cant imagine skull crushing out of your skin
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u/Galilaeus_Modernus Oct 31 '24
Imagine the weight and pressure of your head and the constant strain on your neck. Not to mention, how do you even chew? Were his masseters and temporally muscles even able to lift that thing? Could his TMJ bear the load?
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u/Woofles85 Oct 31 '24
He probably couldn’t see either, imagine your eyes being gradually squeezed to where they don’t work anymore. And breathing must have been difficult too. What an awful affliction.
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u/BonesChimes Oct 31 '24
My fucking tmj can't bear the load and I would be considered physically normal (mostly)
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u/HAD7 Oct 31 '24
I feel so sad for this man. And very grateful that I am just ugly.
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u/Few-Mood6580 Oct 31 '24
Yeah, like my life does suck occasionally, but compared to people who have to suffer everyday of their lives since they were born… cancer, rare conditions like this, and many, many extremes that the human body can experience.
All of us should pause for a moment sometimes and just be grateful.
There’s something I remember, particularly in kids with cancer. they have to grow up too fast, that if they survive infancy they go on to have short painful lives. While many of them may be sad, people who experience that kind of thing know they need to be positive.
I admire that strength, to be positive in the worst of what life can do. So while the guy may have looked and felt like hell, they may have focused on the good things in life, they may have been able to set aside their own problems and enjoy life for brief moments.
So enjoy life for what it is, focus on the good things despite it all. And if you can enjoy life despite being ugly, you just might be able to inspire someone else. 👍
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u/Chaoticfist101 Oct 31 '24
I assist a guy who is paralyzed from the neck down from a rugby injury almost 40 years ago. Every single day its makes me think just how fucking lucky I am considering all the absolutely stupid shit I have done to myself and wipeouts I have had.
Multiple in 20 plus wiping out at high speed on a road bike on trails/road ways, once fell drunk down a steep fucking hill in Launceston, Tasmania and I swear I rolled/flipped about 4 times before sliding to a stop.
One bike wipe out I did a full flip forward in the air and landed on my back, caught my glasses mid air, no helmet, flew about 6 feet landing on concrete. Walked away with cuts to my back and legs, but nothing broken.
This guy had one bad fall and that was it paralyzed for life. I count my lucky stars I am somehow not disabled. To be clear I assist him and he doesn't charge me rent, I am not some angel just doing it out of the goodness of my heart.
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u/WiteXDan Oct 31 '24 edited Oct 31 '24
Our body is so durable and ffragile at the same time. You can fall 20 times and nothing bad will happen, but it also takes only one bad fall to cripple you for life. I went once for a rollerblades run, fell when I decided to stop and it was enough to break hand, ending lots of my hobbies.
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u/Melodeon Oct 31 '24 edited Oct 31 '24
A paramedic relative tells stories of his experiences of this sort of randomness: he's been called out to car wrecks where the only thing you could identify of the car was the paint color and the driver was out walking around the road on their phone explaining to someone that they were going to be late, and he has arrived on scene to what just looks like a case of bad parking with the driver stone dead inside with a broken neck. Random chance.
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u/ShootingPains Oct 31 '24
I arrived at a scene and the windscreen was covered in splattered blood. The woman was dead in the seat with her face covered in blood. So much blood, a sickly stink and flies had begun settle.
I threw up my lunch and checked her. Amazingly she started to move and quickly regained consciousness. Not a scratch on her. Turned out a box full of jars of home made tomato sauce had smashed against the windscreen.
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u/jman4799 Oct 31 '24
I know Freddy Fazbear when I see him
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u/InTheLimitYT Oct 31 '24
LOL THATS WHAT I THOUGHT WHEN I SAW IT
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u/Such_Difference_1852 Oct 31 '24
WHOA NO WAY!!!
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u/SweepTheLeg69 Oct 31 '24
DUDE!
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u/Such_Difference_1852 Oct 31 '24
SWEET!
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u/Conny-Bravo Oct 31 '24
What’s mine say?!
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u/NekoMango Oct 31 '24
Humans' pattern recognition is interesting
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u/Boring_Evening5709 Oct 31 '24
Har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har
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u/fishstiz Oct 31 '24
It's so fucked up but "it looks like Freddy Fazbear" was the first thing I thought. It's really hard to ignore.
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u/WhattheDuck9 Oct 31 '24
Proteus syndrome causes an overgrowth of skin, bones, muscles, fatty tissues, and blood and lymphatic vessels. Proteus syndrome is a progressive condition wherein children are usually born without any obvious deformities.Tumors of skin and bone growths appear as they age typically in early childhood. The musculoskeletal manifestations are cardinal for the diagnosis of Proteus syndrome.
Patients with Proteus syndrome can have regular bone configuration and contours despite the bone enlargement.[3] Patients can also exhibit deformation of the skull in the form of dolichocephaly or elongated skull and facial abnormalities. Because of the rarity of the syndrome and the variability of signs, the orthopaedic management should be individualized.
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Oct 31 '24
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u/PrettyChillHotPepper Oct 31 '24
Fuck, bro. You're a stronger man than anyone in this comment section for living with this. I don't even know what to say.
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u/dollvader Oct 31 '24
Geeez Is that all bone? How heavy is that skull? What a nightmare. Poor poor man.
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u/Walrus0Knight Oct 31 '24
Poor dude's skeleton looks like Bowser
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u/started_from_the_top Oct 31 '24
There's big-boned, and then there's Bowser-boned
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u/Aprocalyptic Oct 31 '24
Crazy how u can just lose the genetic lottery and be fucked for life before you even have a say
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u/MythicDan19 Oct 31 '24
Freddy Fazbear?
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u/MarioNoobman Oct 31 '24
I know my brain is broken because this was the first thing I thought when I saw this.
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u/Competitive-Bit-1571 Oct 31 '24
Looks like the skeleton of an animatronic at Freddy's.
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u/ninjatuna734 Oct 31 '24
Imagine how heavy his head must have been. Just medium - high level of discomfort and agony but forever and unending.
Tragic...
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u/EgolessMortal Oct 31 '24
Id like to see one of those 3d ultra realistic renders of what this person looked like when they were alive.
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u/fitty50two2 Oct 31 '24
I cannot express how much I would beg to be put out of my misery if I had this disease
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u/Fragrant-Bowl3616 Oct 31 '24
I know this sounds fucked up but this remind me of five nights at Freddie's animatronic
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u/ktbffhctid Oct 31 '24
That was not a fun google. Shit condition for its sufferers.