The doctors performed a bunch of tests which confirmed the boy hadn’t eaten any mercury but must have taken it in through the skin. “Surprisingly, he had no other psychiatric problems and had a normal IQ,” they wrote in the journal, which sounds like throwing shade but was just a calm medical assessment. A couple skin grafts later, and they had the kid healing properly.
Some people will read this story and think this means movies have to be more careful about what they portray, lest impressionable kids imitate them. We think perhaps the opposite message is more sound: If someone somewhere will imitate even the most fantastical movie scenes, maybe movies themselves don’t deserve blame at all. You might as well get angry with the makers of Spider-Man just in case some kid somewhere purposely tries to get bitten by a spider.
Oh yeah: It turns out that the same kid who injected himself with mercury also purposely repeatedly got bit by spiders, to turn himself into Spider-Man.
This fact came from the new One Cracked Fact newsletter. Want more like this, straight from your email inbox, without any ads or popups? Join here:
For more medical misadventures, see also:
5 Horrific Injuries People Didn’t Realize They Had
The 5 Most Horrifying Sports Injuries of All Time
5 Bizarre Workers’ Comp Claims That Were Actually Successful
Top image: 20th Century Studios