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English| Silent Alphabets in English Language| Curio Facts

The English language is famous for having rules that don't make sense, and the rules of spelling and pronunciation are a big reason. Some letters are pronounced, some aren't, and there's no real system for figuring out when to pronounce and when not to. In fact, more than half of the letters in our alphabet ( B, D, E, G, H, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, W, X, and Z) are silent in some words. And that's a conservative estimate. Silent letters confuse English language learners of all ages, and native speakers can't even explain why they're there. It's time that we get to the bottom of this spelling and pronunciation mystery. The English language has been written down for more than a thousand years, which means it's had plenty of time to borrow and twist around words from other languages. For example, consider Greek words like "psychology" and Japanese words like "tsunami." Because English doesn't have the Greek letter ψ (psi) or the J...
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Appendix| A doctor had to remove his own appendix| Curio Facts

 

Picture this: You are 27 years old and on an expedition in Antarctic to build a soviet base in early 1960’s and suddenly you feel stabbing, nausea causing pain in right side of your midsection. You know for sure it’s a sign of acute appendicitis. And the good news is you are a doctor. Wait, you are the only doctor and the ship which is supposed to take you back home isn’t going to return soon. That’s a terrible and horrifying news right?



Appendix-A-doctor-had-to-remove-his-own-appendix-Curio-Facts



Let me tell you the nightmare scenario you just pictured was the reality for a Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov while he was on the sixth Antarctic expedition to build a base at Schirmacher Osis. He was in life and death situation and he realized that the only person who could perform the surgery was himself. His son Vladislav told the story to BBC in an interview that he had to open his own abdomen to take his intestines out. He didn’t know at that time if it was possible for a human to do that. Even beyond the considerable personal costs he had to think there were also political risks. The surgeon had to get approval from authorities to perform surgery.

How did it go?

Rogozov assigned different tasks to his colleagues. They handed him instruments, held up mirror and made sure no one else get fainted. Vladislav noted that Dr was ready for every outcome. Rogosov even administered his own local anesthetic and performed his entire two hour surgery without losing his consciousness. He finally found the source of his pain. He wrote in his diary “Finally here it is, the cursed appendage! With horror I noticed the dark stain at its base. That means just a day longer it would have burst. But, it didn’t. “

What a courageous man he was.

Finally his self-surgery was a success. According to BBC he returned home and his unfortunate medical issue became the fodder for Soviet propaganda. Rogonov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and was even compared to the first man in the space, Yuri Gagarin.

But you know what the most impressive part of the story is he went to work just a week later..




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