Health Matters: 45 Amazing Facts About Doctors and Their Patients

Khassan Baiev was the only surgeon available for over 80,000 people during the Chechen wars and at one point during the conflict he performed 67 amputations and eight brain operations in a 48-hour period. He was also known for treating both Chechen and Russian soldiers.

2. Doctors from UCLA found unique blood cells that can help fight infections in the spleen of a man from Seattle, so they stole the cells from his body and developed it into medicine without paying him, getting his consent or even letting him know they were doing it.

3. Polish doctor Eugene Lazowski saved 8,000 Jews during the Holocaust by injecting dead typhus cells into them, allowing them to test positive for typhus despite being healthy. Germans were afraid of the highly contagious disease and refused to deport them to concentration camps.

4. Vaccination campaign for smallpox eradication that was led by late Dr. Henderon has saved more lives to date than we have lost in all wars combined.

5. During the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, education about the disease was limited for political reasons. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop ended up infuriating members of both parties after he ordered that every home in America be mailed a letter explaining what AIDS was and how to protect from it.

A Reader's Digest journalist went to 50 different dentists in 27 States to determine if their diagnoses and treatment plans were at all consistent. None of them were and estimates ranged from $0 to $30,000.

7. Modern surgeon sponges have x-ray visible stripes because it is one of the most common surgical items that surgeons forget to remove and they are often left it inside the patients.

8. Dr. Patricia Bath restored sight to millions of people suffering from cataracts thanks to her invention of the Laserphaco Probe. Among her multiple firsts, she was the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology and first African-American female doctor to receive a medical patent.

9. In one of the most complicated surgeries every performed, pediatric surgeons Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye and Dr. Darrell Cass, removed a baby from a womb to cut out a tumor, placed the baby back inside the womb. Several weeks later the baby was delivered healthy.

10. In 2015, a Michigan doctor named Dr. Farid Fata was sentenced to 45 years in prison for giving chemotherapy to patients who didn't actually have cancer.

Dr. Howard Jones in 1978 was forced into retirement due to rigid age restrictions for surgeons at Johns Hopkins. Rather than end his medical career, Jones moved to Virginia, where in 1981 at the age of 70, he performed the first IVF case in the United States. He died in 2015 at the age of 104.

12. In 2009, when a doctor named Richard Barista was served divorce papers by his wife, he proceeded to sue her for the return of the kidney he gave her 8 years ago. He requested her to pay $1.5 million for the organ he had donated and insisted that his cash-for-kidney claim was the direct result of his wife's behavior.

13. In London, Ontario a flame of hope was lit in 1989 as a tribute to Dr. Frederick Banting and all the people that have lost their lives to diabetes. The flame will remain lit until there is a cure for diabetes.

14. A female doctor from Brazil, after being fed up with the burglars jumping over her fence and stealing her belongings, taped a dozen HIV-infected syringes atop her metal fence with a warning board saying, “Wall with HIV positive blood. No trespassing.”

15. A reckless neurosurgeon named Dr. Christopher Duntsch in Texas killed and paralyzed several patients over 18 months in spite of many formal complaints of his malpractice by fellow neurosurgeons.

A doctor named Haing Ngor survived 4 years of genocide under the Khmer Rouge by pretending to be uneducated. After moving to America, he starred in a movie - as a man faking stupidity to survive the Khmer Rouge. He won an Oscar.

17. In 1961, a surgeon named Leonid Rogozov diagnosed himself with acute appendicitis when was in Antarctica as part of a Russian expedition. With no other options, he performed the surgery on himself over 2 hours.

18. An dentist named Ben L. Salomon who was serving in the US Army during World War 2 was shot 24 times while defending an aid station from the Japanese. Although he killed up to 98 attackers, allowing the wounded to be evacuated, his Medal of Honor was delayed because medical officers were not supposed to bear arms against the enemy.

19. A UK heart surgeon named Mr. Francis Wells has pioneered a new way to repair damaged hearts after being inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's medical drawings.

20. An Italian brain surgeon named Claudio Vitale had a heart attack in the middle of an operation. He powered through it when he realized his patient would never recover if he stopped.

In 2004, a dentist named Dr. John Hall was charged after he made female patients unwittingly swallow his semen during visits to his clinic. He told them he was "going to put something in her mouth that would taste funny, but would stop the bleeding."

22. A neurosurgeon named Dr. Robert White performed a successful head transplant of a monkey in the 1970's. The monkey could hear, smell, taste and feel for several minutes.

23. A British Army surgeon named Rick Jolly in the Falklands conflict saved every life under his care, both British and Argentine. He was the only man decorated by both Britain and Argentina for his services in the war.

24. A British naval doctor named James Lind figured out how to “treat” scurvy with lemons and oranges. He then published his findings which were well received. The British navy continued to supply sailors with less effective lime juice and scurvy continued as a major cause of death for a century.

25. The first female Athenian doctor (Agnodice) had to dress as a man in order to get her education and practice medicine because being a female doctor was a capital crime, but when she became the most popular doctor in town among women in her male guise, the other doctors accused her of seducing her patients.