We recently came across a Reddit thread where user u/Vacancier1807 asked people to share some VERY creepy facts and, in the spirit of Halloween, we've decided to share some of them with you...
1. "If you get a blood transfusion and get the wrong type of blood, one of the symptoms is 'a sense of impending doom.'"
Getting a blood transfusion of a different blood type than what you have can be potentially life-threatening. Your immune system will attack the donor cells, which can cause kidney failure, circulatory collapse, and death.
2. "It wasn't until 1987 that the American Academy of Pediatrics declared it unethical to operate on newborns without anesthesia. Until surprisingly recently, the medical community felt it would be dangerous to give infants anesthesia and/or believed that they didn't feel pain."
3. "The bottom of Lake Superior is cold enough that the bodies of dead sailors just...remain. They don't really decompose because it's at freezing temperatures, so they instead get a coating of adipocere, which is liquid body fat, hardened around them."
Here's a video that's mildly disturbing about Lake Superior:
View this video on YouTube
4. "There's a spider that gives you an hours-long, very painful boner before you die from its bite."
The spider is called the Brazilian wandering spider and its venom is being researched to help treat erectile dysfunction.
5. "Crocodiles can gallop like horses. I don't like knowing this so I am cursing you people with this knowledge as well. Fortunately, alligators cannot."
6. "If the sun exploded right now, you would be blissfully unaware of it for just over eight minutes while the energy travels at the speed of light to get to you."
7. "Your brain can play tricks on you to make you see monsters in the mirror. This is called the Troxler Effect. It's an optical illusion that affects how you perceive things, both visually and mentally."
8. "The astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger most likely didn’t die until they hit the water miles below the initial explosion."
"Astronaut and NASA lead accident investigator Robert Overmyer said, 'I not only flew with Dick Scobee [STS-51-L Commander], we owned a plane together, and I know Scob did everything he could to save his crew. Scob fought for any and every edge to survive. He flew that ship without wings all the way down.' They were alive."
9. "One reason why crows and ravens are associated with death is because they would often follow armies as they marched into battle. Being both carrion birds and extremely intelligent, they realized that a large group of armed men marching in one direction meant that there would be a tasty meal of corpses to eat soon afterward."
10. "Your eyes have a separate immune system from the rest of your body. If they get damaged in such a way that it affects anything other than your eyes, your regular immune system can attack the damage and will not recognize them, meaning your own body can permanently blind you."
"What's worse, your body cannot tell the difference between either eye. If one of them gets infected or damaged, your immune system can attack your healthy eye and take away your sight entirely."
You can read more about your eye's relationship to the immune system here.
11. "There is a genetic disease called Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP). When tissue is damaged, it is replaced with bone. Growths form underneath their skin and joints lock solid. So, over time, those affected slowly become encased in a prison of bone just beneath their own skin. They usually have to choose between sitting or standing up for the rest of their lives. By the end of their lives, they have to drink every meal through a straw and can barely move."
"Removing the excess bone with surgery is no option either because the injuries from the surgery will create even more bone."
A woman named Carol Orzel suffered and died from FOP. Her skeleton is on display at a museum in Philadelphia.
View this video on YouTube
12. A single Bengal tiger — called the Champawat Tiger — killed over 436 people in India and Nepal in the early 1900s.
An Irishman named James Corbett killed the tiger in 1907. The tiger has been described as the deadliest animal in history.
13. "If you begin to display symptoms of rabies, you will go crazy and die. There's no cure. Your brain will slowly melt until you're dead."
14. "Hearing is the last thing to go after you die. You just might hear the paramedics and firefighters call off CPR..."
That's all. Now try to think happy thoughts for the rest of the day.
