Linda

Moderator's Note:

A large number of posts and pictures have been deleted from this thread because they were off topic attempts to derail it.

Please post your responses by debating the merits of the opening post and picture rather than by attempting to derail the thread through spamming with off topic pictures and posts. Thank you.

HelenM

The graphic nature of the photo didn't bother me but I agree it's best to warn people it's of a surgery in progress, before they click on it. I'm glad the warning was added.

I think it's neat they can do surgery on babies in utero, like that, fwiw.

The text did irritate me in that it was blatantly using the photo to push an agenda. It irritated me in the same way it would have irritated me if the text said "That Pepsi on the table behind the surgeon proves that Pepsi improves the results of surgery..."

Helen

Godless Dave

I agree. The photo itself didn't bother me (and I'm fairly squeamish) but the article was disgusting drivel.

dangin

actually I think the picture is a monument to man's ability to exist without god. God made a sick baby, man is curing god's sloppy or sadistic work.

All praise science and technology:notworthy :notworthy the god killers. :notworthy :notworthy

Shake

First, Ronin, I agree that your link is much better!

Secondly, Livius, I am with you! While this particular picture didn't nauseate me, other similar ones would. Before anyone goes back into talking about horror films, let me say that I've seen a lot of horror films, even the more disturbing Hellraiser series, and that doesn't bother me as much photos/film of surgery. I guess it's 'cause I know the (horror) movies are fake. In college, while watching Born on the 4th of July, I literally had to leave the theater and sit outside for a while because I was so disgusted at one of the early war scenes. I actually got through Saving Private Ryan with no problem, but I've had trouble with other films depicting scenes of realistic gore or surgery. Merely talking about things like protruding broken bones, will get my stomach going, and I'll get light-headed. In the military we had to attend annual training about "self-aid and buddy care" (i.e. First Aid), in which there were scenes of the above and even eye wounds. Whew. I'm starting to get a bit quesy just typing this. Anyway, I'd always have to turn away from the video and just listen. This is why I'm not in the medical profession.

OK, in short I agree, Livius, what some people can handle is not for everyone. It's nice to see that the OP was edited to add a warning, but it's unfair and misleading to say "great picture" and then post something like that. When in doubt, post a warning ... it won't take but another 30 seconds to do so.

Terracotta

Linda, I am so very glad that you posted that warning before I found this thread. Thank you.

Amie, it was very insensitive of you to post that link without a warning, and then not even editing your OP and adding a warning after people raised concerns about the graphic nature of the link.

I am 7 months pregnant and can feel my baby moving as I type. I have no desire whatsoever to see a picture like that, and I suspect many other pregnant women would feel the same. While I am amazed at the advances in surgery that extend to babies in utero, while pregnant I don't want to see things like this. I'm hormonal enough as it is, thank you.

pz

I'm about the least queasy person I know. I didn't start out that way, but I became inured to it while chopping up cute little furry animals for a long, long time. However, I've got a confession to make: it really takes a suspension of empathy to do that, an ability to distance yourself from the subject. I discovered that about a dozen years ago, when my son fell down and gashed his head on a metal grate. We had to get him to an emergency room to get stitched up, and I was really interested in a clinical sense -- I started out watching the doctor work, and was initially fascinated. You could see the bone of the cranium, the layers of the scalp, etc., and it was actually kind of cool (especially since my son had been anesthetized, and wasn't hurting). All of a sudden, though, I realized that it was my kid sitting there. I had this peculiar sensation. I wasn't bothered in the slightest by blood and bone, but I abruptly experienced all the feelings that I'd seen in others who had stepped accidentally into the old animal surgery. I went pale, felt light-headed and mildly nauseous, and to my acute embarrassment, the doctor had to suggest that I sit down before I passed out.

Celsus

Hi all,

Like some of the others, I'm not particularly queasy about this sort of thing. I've been sorting through my father's surgical photos from Africa over the last few weeks, and he brought us (my brother and myself) up showing us all the horrors of disease. Africans can be extremely reluctant to seek modern medicine until their witchdoctors have thoroughly fucked up, which they invariably do. So they come into the hospital with things that would have been harmless if they'd come to the hospital before going to their shamans. These would range from the mildly upsetting (a young boy with small weird growths on his head), to the grotesque (mostly unchecked ulcers), to the plain bizarre (tumours the size of a young pig). Bad smells upset me... when I was in Africa, someone with a severe urinary infection managed to stink up the entire hospital, and every time I walked by, I really felt like throwing up, even though I didn't see anything (and one of the nurses started to describe it, but I decided I didn't want to know that much). That said, I can understand the upset people have. Amie is clearly being deceitful to try to increase the shock value of the picture. It didn't shock me, but it's seriously low. The piss-poor reasoning in that article is probably more upsetting to me.

Joel

Treacle Worshipper

Thankfully I didn't get here until after the warning was posted.
In response to Amie's OP, I think the surgery is amazing, but I don't like pictures of people's innards, so I can't agree with you that the picture's amazing too.
TW

Hedwig

I've seen that picture before so I wasn't terribly bothered by it. But the article really irritated me.