You’d think after seeing hundreds of bodies, nothing would surprise people who do autopsies for a living — but sometimes, even they’re left stunned. Recently, u/atro_bella asked, “People who perform autopsies, what was the weirdest/most unique anomaly you’ve found?” And the answers did not disappoint. From misplaced organs and mystery tumors to bodies with missing brains (yes, really), these professionals shared the wildest, weirdest things they’ve discovered on the table:
1.“I performed autopsies for almost a decade. The most unique thing I saw was uterine didelphys with a septate vagina. Basically, the vagina split in two and went to two separate cervixes and two separate uterine cavities. The two parts of the uterus fused into one heart-shaped body.”
Bloomberg Creative / Getty Images/Bloomberg Creative Photos
“I only saw that once.”
—u/yeahprobablydrunk
2.“Situs inversus. Basically, all the organs were in mirrored anatomical positions from where they should normally be. So, so cool.”
—u/PaperClipehz
3.“In a previous career, I was a US Army CID agent. For every death investigation that required an autopsy, we had to send an agent to photograph and observe for the case file. One guy who had been stabbed through the heart with a steak knife by his wife was in peak physical shape — but when the pathologist pulled his brain out, he said, “Look at this.” I have no biology training, but the golf ball-sized tumor on his brainstem was obvious even to me. The doctor said he had maybe 90 days to live at the time of his death.”
P_Wei / Getty Images
“The wife went to prison for murder, and all she had to do was wait a few months and she’d have been a hero Army widow.”
—u/Underwater_Karma
4.“An old woman with an incredibly thick skull all the way around. Her brain was much, much smaller than it should have been, but according to her family, she was fully functional and displayed no deficits of any kind. She actually ran her own cheese-making company and died from a carbon monoxide leak.”
“Strangest case I ever saw!”
—u/User5711
5.“I was performing an autopsy on an elderly patient with cardiac valve disease and found a 3 cm white plastic disc lodged in the ostium of one of the renal arteries. It was identical to the disc of the patient’s tilting valve-type mechanical aortic valve, which was in place, intact, and functioning normally. We had no explanation for why an extra valve disc was present far downstream from the heart. An in-depth review of the patient’s surgical history revealed that many years earlier, during the installation of the aortic valve, the cage for the valve broke while being installed. The disc had flown into the aorta and couldn’t be retrieved. The surgeon immediately removed the broken cage, replaced the entire apparatus with another valve, and completed the surgery.”
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“We found no evidence of any subsequent investigation to determine the whereabouts of the lost valve component. So for years — apparently unknown to most of his caretakers and possibly even to the patient — he had a cardiac valve disc lodged in his renal artery ostium. It was non-obstructing and stable, and was discovered as an incidental finding during the autopsy.”
—U/vongokko
6.“I did an autopsy of a young kid, around 10 years old, who had hydrocephalus and was quadriplegic, yet retained some of his normal functions, like talking and understanding — albeit minimally. When I opened his skull, there was no brain. I was shocked. This was my first time witnessing something like this. There was approximately 1.5 liters of fluid and just an empty skull. The brain was so severely atrophied it was smaller than a golf ball.”
“Amazing how he survived until age 10!”
—u/Danger-Doctor-419
7.“My stepmom is a funeral director/embalmer and had a deceased person with a 6-inch tail just below their spinal cord.”
–U/benman5745
8.“An accessory spleen just hanging out, attached to the intestines.”
-T / mamalalace luravaib
9.“As part of high school anatomy, we went on a field trip to a local college to work with bodies donated to science. They had a sign: ‘If you can’t find it, they don’t have one.’ A nearby body was missing some part of the digestive tract (I forget what — appendix?). They searched up and down. Just wasn’t there. No scar indicating removal either.”
Maja Coric / Getty Images
“Another body was a dead biker and heavy drinker. His body adjusted, though. His liver was seriously twice the size of anyone else’s there — maybe more — and stretched all the way across his torso. That liver was a beast.”
—u/drakethrice
10.“In medical school, I attended one autopsy where the patient had a fistula (connection) between his aortic artery and his esophagus. He bled to death that way. Scary to think about.”
—u/TyrosinLennyster
11.“I observed a lot of things during my professional autopsies. The most notorious was a guy with four .22 bullets in his cranium. He didn’t claim pain and apparently lived a normal life. His daughter told me he was a gang member when he was young. He died of cardiac arrest at age 60.”
—U/vanner farmers
12.“A horseshoe kidney — both kidneys were fused at the lower ends. Another person had a missing lung lobe, so two lobes on each side instead of two and three, and no sign of surgery.”
—u/notonthenightshift
13.“I’m a funeral director and was embalming an old woman who was still warm — she had died just about an hour before. I couldn’t get any drainage at all, but I had the drain tube in her vein, opened up, and the embalming fluid was pushing through. It didn’t make sense. I started rooting around in her vein and saw some coagulation, and used forceps to pull out a clot that looked like a tree branch. It was about 7 inches long and had branches from smaller vessels. She instantly started bleeding out.”
Alacatr / Getty Images
“She was a great embalming.”
—U/knittykittyemily
14.“My aunt, who worked as a pathologist, told me of the time she did an autopsy on a newborn baby who was born seemingly healthy but was unable to feed and then died. The baby’s esophagus was not connected to the stomach — it was connected to the trachea and lungs instead. And the lungs were full of milk.”
—u/Heroic-Forger
15.“Back in 1990, I was completing a group autopsy in an advanced human anatomy class. An 85-year-old patient had a tumor in her brain. It was the size of a golf ball on her right lobe — unknown to her before death. She died in her sleep of natural causes. The tumor was not malignant but most likely caused some wicked headaches, along with other symptoms.”
“The stuff you find. The body is a wonder.”
—u/Appropriate_Bad74247
16.“I’m not a regular autopsy performer, but I do a lot with forensic archaeology (mostly natural mummies now) and had to take an A&P class that involved cadaver dissection. Female patient died at 102 of natural causes. We found that the joint of her left elbow had been replaced with something that legitimately looked like a car part. Turns out she’d lived somewhere in Soviet Eastern Europe and had the procedure done sometime in the 1960s. It looked like the replacement was done with whatever was available.”
Capuski / Getty Images
“It was absolutely incredible.”
—U/Amycusfinch
17.“A huge pericarditis pus buildup that was 500 ml in volume and bright green. Intestines that had herniated into a man’s testicles. Horseshoe kidneys — I’ve seen this twice in my 10-year mortuary career. I’ve seen many accessory spleens, which are very cute. I have so many other cool things, but these rank up there.”
“Oh, just wanted to add that jumping maggots are a thing. Fun times!”
-U / Panowshamwwwow
Clearly, bodies are weird and interesting — and sometimes downright unbelievable. Did any of these stand out to you? Or do you have a wild medical story or something strange you’ve seen firsthand to share? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
