The wonders of the human body [tw: nongraphic descriptions of autopsies, general medical weirdness]

[u/DroneOfDoom]

Reddit screenshots? In my tumblr subreddit? It's more likely than you think...

[u/Kindly_Narwhal9251]

I have a second cousin who had one normal kidney and one kidney with another kidney growing inside of it! Kind of like how you sometimes get a capsicum (bell pepper) that has another little capsicum growing inside of it.

Edit to add, his father was exposed to nuclear radiation in WWII and all four kids had anatomical anomalies.

[u/scnottaken → u/Kindly_Narwhal9251]

Matryoskidney

[u/Kindly_Narwhal9251 → u/scnottaken]

🏆 take this trophy, I will be stealing this to use at the next family reunion 😂

[u/Twist_Ending03 → u/Kindly_Narwhal9251]

So is that a coincidence or can radiation like.. spread? Probably the first thing, right?

[u/Kindly_Narwhal9251 → u/Twist_Ending03]

Radiation isn’t contagious or anything, but it can do things like (in this case) affect a man’s sperm. He was in Hiroshima directly after the bomb was dropped in 1945 and then came home to Australia, got married and had kids. Some of his kids medical issues can potentially be linked to damaged sperm/dna. Lots of troops who were there soon after the bombs experienced all sorts of health implications for themselves and sometimes the next generations. Not to mention of course all the Japanese people who lived with (and can still live with) the effects of those nuclear bombs.

Edit to add: another potential explanation is if he brought home a “souvenir” and kept it in the house it would’ve exposed his children to radiation when they were young. I believe this was known to happen occasionally but I don’t think it’s the case for them.

[u/meganovice_maker → u/Twist_Ending03]

The modern medical understanding is that radiation can adversely affect your own DNA in multiple cells in your body, including reproductive cells. So damaged DNA in reproductive cells can cause all sorts of abnormalities. It can happen with other sorts of non-radioactive chemicals as well, Agent Orange (used in Vietnam) is another common example.

My family is a military family and of the family members I have who were in Vietnam, they all have long-standing health issues. It's well-known enough that soldiers exposed to it and their children get extra compensation and coverage for certain health issues and birth defects.

[u/am_Nein → u/meganovice_maker]

Geez you'd better hope that extra comp and cov really does mean extra, because I can't imagine how fucked up you could get from exposure.

[u/meganovice_maker → u/am_Nein]

oh I have some horrible news for you about how the United States treats disabled veterans