An unfortunate, but amazing case: a 25-year-old schizophrenic man shoved a 14.5-cm-long ballpoint pen through his eye socket, all the way to his cerebellum (in the rear of the brain). Hospital staff found him lying in a pool of blood, and the man told doctors he 'had torn his eyes because it tickled and that 10 years earlier he had shot himself in one eye with an airgun rifle.' His doctors were puzzled: the man slipped quickly into a coma, but there was no sign of serious trauma to the area other than a small hematoma. A CT scan (above) provided more baffling information, which the doctors initially interpreted as a bullet wound in the left parieto-occipital region. When the patient died 4 days after the injury, the ballpoint pen was discovered wedged deep into the brain. The blunt end of the pen, with cap, had been inserted first, with the cap lodged well into the right lobe of the cerebellum. This is one of the only known suicides on record from "low-velocity" penetrating objects.
Its amazing that, with a 14 cm plastic pen stuck in his brain, the patient was still conscious enough to discuss his injury with hospital staff. What was he thinking as he slowly pushed that pen further and further into his brain?
Reference:
Lunetta P, Ohberg A, Sajantila A. Suicide by intracerebellar ballpoint pen. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2002 Dec;23(4):334-7.
Hat tip A Good Poop.
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Comments
Maybe he was thinking:
"If I can just severe my corona radiata..."
Posted by: Mo | August 28, 2007 11:40 AM
Oops...I meant "sever".
Posted by: Mo | August 28, 2007 11:44 AM
It seems the pen can, indeed, be at least as mighty as the sword.
What was he thinking? Hmm.
Look what I can do!
Posted by: Warren | August 28, 2007 12:01 PM
How did he get it that far in there? The end of the pen is a good 2 inches in. It's even with the back of his eyeball. Was he ramming it in with another pen or something?
What do you want to bet he was trying to stab one of the voices in his head or something along those lines.
Posted by: Boosterz | August 28, 2007 12:23 PM
If you read much Stephen King, you'll notice that he can rarely write a book where at least one person does not die from having an object shoved through their right eye. The next time I read one of his novels, I will definitely think of that X-ray image...
Posted by: Anne-Marie | August 28, 2007 12:38 PM
I guess he was trying to write a suicide note, ran out of paper, and decided the back of his skull would make a good "sticky note..."
Posted by: MarcusBrutus | August 28, 2007 2:16 PM
I'm so glad you didn't pose the overly obvious question of "what was going through his head at the time?" Oh, wait, I guess I did. I will now slink away in shame.
Posted by: Shaun | August 28, 2007 3:52 PM
Someone emailed to let me know I hadn't posted the source article (whoops!), so I just posted it now, with a link to the abstract, if anyone is interested.
Posted by: Shelley Batts | August 28, 2007 5:44 PM
This image needs to be put on a hoodie. You make think it insensitive or whatever, but that would sell like hotcakes. Hotcakes in a lumberjack factory.
Posted by: Zeno, Internet Warlord | August 28, 2007 6:54 PM
kmon everybody knows that lumberjacks are abducted and enslaved members of YMCA.
note to self: pen through eye suicide; possible...
Posted by: anonymous | August 28, 2007 7:05 PM
Suicide in general is a terrible, terrible idea, but if you're going to do it you might as well do something to make the news. It's your last chance to be inventive, might as well use your brain.
Although honestly I would have been more impressed if he'd managed to get one of those little paper cups pills come in to the back of his skull. Now THAT would be confusing to the doctors.
Posted by: sandswipe | August 28, 2007 7:56 PM
I'm astounded that no one has yet pointed out that the Simpsons anticipated this by years. Homer is stupid because of a crayon he lodged in his brain in childhood, while testing how many he could fit into his nose. It went undiscovered because Dr. Hibbert's thumb always covered x-rays of that part of Homer's head. He removes the crayon, becomes a genius, then (spoiler!) realizes he's losing touch with his family, and reinserts the crayon.
Perhaps now that episode will have to have a warning against trying it at home?
Posted by: Josh Rosenau | August 29, 2007 4:42 AM
i rather jump into a cliff than doing this. it really hurts
Posted by: SELaplana | August 29, 2007 6:23 AM
While sifting through Good Poop, you missed this gem from the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences:
Phantom erection after amputation of penis, by C. M. Fisher.
I couldn't resist posting the abstract.
Posted by: Mo | August 29, 2007 8:28 AM
Just a little question here -- how did doctors possibly think that it was a bullet wound. I realize than my perceptions might be affected by knowing the punch line, but that really clearly looks like a ballpoint pen in his brain.
Posted by: George | August 29, 2007 7:31 PM
Hi Shelly,
Similar but not identical to Phineas Gage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage
"Gage's case is cited as among the first evidence suggesting that damage to the frontal lobes could alter aspects of personality and affect socially appropriate interaction. Before this time the frontal lobes were largely thought to have little role in behavior. Neurologist Antonio Damasio has written extensively on Gage, as well as on various patients he has studied which, in his personal view, had similar brain injuries. In a theory he calls the somatic marker hypothesis, [AR] Damasio suggests a link between the frontal lobes, emotion and practical decision making. He sees Gage's case as playing a crucial role in the history of neuroscience, arguing that Gage's story "was the historical beginnings of the study of the biological basis of behavior"
Antonio R. Damasio (1995) 'Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain', ISBN 0-380-72647-5.
Posted by: Doug | August 29, 2007 11:05 PM
"Oi lads, Watch this"
Posted by: Dan | August 31, 2007 2:18 PM
Thanks for posting this - wild!
Posted by: deanne | August 31, 2007 3:11 PM
No...just sickeningly tragic.
How much pain does someone has to have, how screwed up does their controlling organ (the brain, the central nervous system bit supposed to be in charge of survival strategies) have to be, for someone to deliberately kill themselves this way and not even say what they had done?
This wasn't done for attention. This was done because someone was ill and couldn't live in his own body. There was a person behind this spectacle, and now he doesn't exist any more because of how f***ed up his body and mental state were. Wotta laugh, eh?
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | August 31, 2007 4:22 PM
Luna, it is quite tragic. I posted on the topic not to poke fun, but as an interesting and amazing case which is one-of-a-kind in the literature.
Posted by: Shelley Batts | August 31, 2007 4:27 PM
To be fair, Shelley, I wasn't responding to your post so much as to the other comments.
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | August 31, 2007 4:30 PM
holy crap
holy crap
I never knew suicide was that easy (though this carries a risk of survival and permanent damage)
Posted by: Simfish InquilineKea | September 1, 2007 10:16 PM
Easy? Pull a plastic bag over your head, THAT's easy...
Posted by: Vantek | September 2, 2007 10:25 AM
I don't think this was "suicide" though - it was more like self-harm from insanity that ended up being lethal. X(
Posted by: Vantek | September 2, 2007 10:28 AM
i reckon he was thinking, "jesus it still itches"
Posted by: ian | September 2, 2007 1:44 PM
a devious plan indeed, with the murder weapon safely encased inside his own head they'll never know how he did it. genius, pure asinine, psychotic, imbacilic genius.
Posted by: Calamari | September 3, 2007 11:50 AM
Now I really, really wish my university carried that journal. That's fascinating!
Posted by: Jon | September 3, 2007 7:10 PM
this bloke must have been arguing with himself and said "i'll stab you in the eye", and replied to himself "yeah do it i'd like to see that"
Posted by: mick | September 3, 2007 11:04 PM
It's scary how creative people can be in coming up with ways to off themselves.
Posted by: Chris | September 9, 2007 11:31 PM
Whoa! It looks like it was inserted with a single smooth stab. Wonder how the heck he did it? Maybe put the pen to his eye and then smashed his head to the wall to nail it in?
It's creepy enough I could have nightmares though to be honest :(
Posted by: Izabael DaJinn | October 1, 2007 6:49 PM
I have heared of a simmlier incident; not so long a ago a RAF man accused of mudering his wife, tried to kill him self in the same fashion but was unsuccessful as he only became paralised.
Posted by: LLF | November 14, 2007 9:04 AM
15 years working in a 200 bed secure psych hospital.....
Bic pen against wall into heart (successful)
Toothbrush (with little rubber pick thing) into brainstem via left eye (unsuccessful)
Hair brush (the spiky wire type) in rectum..
Shotgun under chin, removed most of face....that's not unusual, but this patient had the motivation to rack another shell into the breach and finish the job (witnessed by family)
when people are really sick, there are no limits...
Posted by: Ian | November 28, 2007 1:29 AM
that's a scary thing using a ballpen
Posted by: chloe | November 30, 2007 6:14 AM