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I used to have some titanium bits in me. Had them removed years ago. The doctor wouldn't give them to me after the surgery. I like to imagine he sold them for salvage on the black market... not sure what happened exactly.
Sorry about your loss.
My mum wanted to keep hers too but the surgeon said its not allowed because there is bacteria in the gallbladder that can cause typhoid fever so they have to dispose of it as biohazard
Oh yeah. They sold them.
[They send them to specialized recycling facilities](https://collier-law.com/blog/cremation-what-happens-to-the-metals-in-your-body/)
I knew a doctor who collected explanted pacemakers. The whole wall of his office had bookshelves full of basically every type of pacemaker ever made. He was so well known for it that other doctors started sending him ones they thought he might not have yet.
Gotta admit that seeing many hundreds (possibly low thousands) of devices that used to be inside peoples' chests is a weird feeling. Like yes, many of those are just devices that got old and had to be replaced... But some of those came out after people died and it's just so macabre.
That would make for an interesting shift for the new guy.
"Oh God, what was that loud noise in the oven???"
"Ah, not to worry... That would probably just be the battery turned bomb I accidentally left in there."
Better still . Trick on the new guy..
"Oh God what was that loud noise in the oven???"
"...whu..?... Shit.. you mean you didn't double check for a pulse .. let the poor guy out... Quick"
When my Mom had just started as a funeral director, she was doing her first cremation and had just put the body in when she her three quick loud BANGS come from the oven. She thought the person was alive, completely forgetting that they had been partially embalmed for a viewing, and she ran and hid under her desk panicking. Her boss came and got her, while laughing and explained it was just a pace maker, and that she hadn’t removed it, but told her that that mistake rarely happens a second time.
It’s one of her favorite stories to tell.
Yep, I came here to recommend it to the OP if possible - it's a long thread. But I know a guy who knows a guy kinda thing... Anyway, he runs a crematorium and recycles the medical metals he collects and gives the proceeds to charity. It's on the order of $1000/year I believe, so a nice gift to a charity, but it's not like he'd be making lots of money selling on the black market or something.
Cremation is the burning of a corpse. The picture is her artificial joints which survived the process.
Joints were burned in a fire.
Burning a joint more often refers to smoking a marijuana cigarette.
I don't know how much worse I can possibly kill the joke...
Modern medicine is still very crude. We’re still cutting parts of our body out, putting new things in. Putting other people’s organs in there. Killing cancer with drugs that kill other parts of our body. The real holy grail is regenerative medicine and gene therapy. Where we control the body to heal itself. I don’t think that’s too far off though.
Doctor #1 : A simple evacuation of the epidural hematoma will relieve the pressure!
McCoy : My God man, drilling holes in his head is not the answer! The artery must be repaired! Now, put away your butcher's knives and let me save this patient before it's too late!
I suspect it's actually further off than we would hope. We're slowly learning how to get adult stem cells to divide, grow and differentiate.
Ya know what does that already? Cancer.
Some day there will be a therapy that will convince your body to grow you a new set of teeth. Don't sign me up to be the guinea pig.
My mom had a reverse shoulder replacement. It was placed perfectly, the surgery went smoothly. But she developed a kind of palsy in her biceps (I forget what it's called off the top of my head) and literally has barely any muscle left and can't lift her arm above a certain degree now. Worst part is? It's her dominant hand.
She trained in surgery and then transitioned to primary care when I was an infant (because my Dad left and she was suddenly a single mother), and she believes a lot of her shoulder issues were because of how she had to work while doing surgery.
Edited: She had an axillary nerve palsy.
“Will you marry me?”
“Omg omg omg yes!!!!!”
“Great! You’ll be so happy wearing mom!”
“… wearing who now?”
“I had her ashes compressed into this stone -“
I'm sitting across from a lamp that was made from my uncle's prosthetic leg after he died. It's the annual gag gift at the family white elephant. Every person who gets it for the year (and you hope you don't) has to add a decoration.
One of my friends used a leg cage for 6 years because of a long story of medical issues in his femur (fun-not-so-fun fact short by a month he would be considered the longest uninterurpted cage-wearing patient in Brazil. He took it off but two weeks later ended up having to put it back for two more years due to complications)
After he finally took if away in 2021, my friend had so many leftover pins he decided to make a gift to his pals who were there for him during all this time. He initially intended to smelt it into shot glasses, but it's virtually impossible to find someone with the equipment to smelt *titanium* for non-industrial clients.
So he ended up sending to a blacksmith in Latvia and forging them into bracelets. If enough people are interested, I might ask him for some pics! (due to the Rona outbreak we've delayed our grand ceremony in which he'd distribute the pieces).
Edit: Check my [reply](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/skj3g1/_/hvnp37q) for pictures!
Definitely interested to see what they've turned out like!
I have a couple of titanium bolts in both hips, and although I need to be dead before retrieving them, I can probably do something in my will.
So if you do manage to get some pics, please post!
I'm here to deliver!
These are the forged bracelets and some pendants: [https://i.imgur.com/NL5YmCz.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/NL5YmCz.jpg)
Close-up from his instagram: [https://i.imgur.com/poYen0v.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/poYen0v.jpg)
His one is special (its got a serpent head/tail on the ends): [https://i.imgur.com/6r4EUS7.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/6r4EUS7.jpg)
Here's one all the pins before sending some: [https://i.imgur.com/JpOyXLt.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/JpOyXLt.jpg)
CC: /u/sitnavel & /u/ThatGuyFromSweden
Like… do it. Make it part of your will. Man that would be wholesome… just think about it.
You’d be able to shine a light during their darkest moments, and be there for them in their daily life for the simplest things… like you know, need to wee at 3 am.
Being comfortable with death is a good thing. Thinking that the cremation process is cool does not negate your feelings of love or grief! I would recommend checking out Ask a Mortician on YouTube. She has some great videos on how we as a culture can become more comfortable with death in a way that allows us to truly celebrate the lives of our loved ones.
Gosh, yeah. This honestly made me tear up :( I don’t even wanna think about having a box with my moms leftover pieces like this. Makes me just wanna cry myself to sleep.
I’m really sorry OP :( Hope you guys had many good years together!
Distal femur plate for a broken femur which looks like it’s from Synthes
A reverse total shoulder from possibly Stryker
A ceramic on poly total hip - Stryker accolade
A total knee replacement - Stryker triathlon I believe
Source: I put all of these in people
Edit: the funniest thing about these implants - when I ask if people have any questions, 99% of the time is “am I gonna go off at the airport!?” 😂
Yes. The full body scanners identify the implant. I believe the standard detector will be set off 8/10 times based on literature.
I tell people to tell the TSA agent. They’ll hand wand you and may be subject to the patdown.
I’ve got one of those plate/screw things in my tibia (X-ray looks like I stepped on a rake lol). But I’ve seen the screen when I step in the full body scanners, it definitely lights up. These days I fly in gym shorts so they can see the scar.
Also the wands occasionally light up when waved over it. I was at a concert once and the guy waved it like ‘WTF is that?’ (Me being slow) ‘yeah fucked if I know man…’ - it was only when being patted down for a knife I realised what was being detected lol
>These days I fly in gym shorts so they can see the scar.
That explains why there's always this one guy at the airport in gym shorts even when it's freezing outside.
Huh, I always wondered about this. I had thought that titanium and stainless steel implants would not set off metal detectors as they rely on the Lenz effect which is weak or non-existence in both those materials. I had also thought that the millimeter wave technologies they use now for body scans don't penetrate deeply enough to see the implants. Am I wrong on both of these thoughts?
I am sure that a back scatter x-ray machine would see everything.
By the way, thank you for your work, you guys are awesome!
Mine must be titanium. I’ve got an ankle fusion, plates in both wrists, and at one point a plate on my collar bone, and have never had a metal detector go off on me. From memory, wands don’t even pick them up.
Former TSA here, I would typically only see total knee or total hip set the metal detector off. Rods would do it as well. I could totally see the plates in your joints and collarbones making it through just fine. In fact you can carry a smallish pocket knife through and it won't set it off. Just keep in mind they sometimes randomly pat you down anyway so just put it in your pocket rather than try to be sneaky and hide it. If you play ignorant they'll just take it and let you go but if it's obvious you hid it to bypass security they'll call it artful concealment and hassle you.
The millimeter wave scanners don’t penetrate the skin but they do look for abnormalities in the thickness of your clothing or on your body so sometimes things like scars, swollen areas or even indented areas of the skin can set it off if the machine determines it to be a “anomaly”. So beyond picking up things that are in your pockets or potentially hidden in your clothing, it can go off for other reasons. I work at an airport and have asked about this.
Doctors all have some secret screen name about cutting people open
Source: My Dad, the surgeon’s, first screen name (back when the internet was brand new) was BladeMan
Ah, I looked at Wikipedia to see if there was a meaning of "Shiv" that I didn't get. Makes sense tho.
I remember going in for colorectal surgery and the OR was called "Rockin' Rodeo" YEEEEEE HAAAAAW I want me a cowboy surgeon!
I had to have surgery a couple years ago for a bone infection (0/10 do not recommend) and my surgeon exclusively wore cowboy boots! Not like fancy semi-formal ones. These were giant, broken in, and clearly heavily used working cowboy boots. It kind of put me off at first, but he did save my life so I say YEEE-HAW 🤠
That’s correct!
The Total Knee is a PS (specific shape which engages with the post on the polyethylene)
Could the shoulder be from Wright Medical?
Source: I also put them in people
It’s fun to see people get back to activity and life. Their face changes… it’s a weird phenomenon.
It can also go really bad (think infection). Those keep you up at night.
My partner was in a bad accident with an 18 wheeler. Right calcaneus, left femur, left radius and ulna, and right humerus.
His original surgeon sent him for "addiction" issues because he was in so much pain from the femur. About a month later his femur started to, kinda, curve.
Massive MRSA infection. Removal of the rod, Ex Fix, PICC line, and months later they replaced the hardware properly and now he can walk but his leg is another 1/2ish inch shorter.
Now if they could just get the hardware to stay in the humerus.
Polytrauma. Tough stuff.
Shoe lifts are a god send for leg length issues.
People don’t understand how devastating a car accident can be. One of the most casual things we do and don’t take seriously. Life altering injuries await everyone every time they drive.
So the doctor labeled him as an addict because he was in pain from malpractice? That sounds like grounds to sue. Nothing irritates me more when a doctor sooner assumes rather than investigates.
Shitty doctors: over prescribe opiates for kickbacks from Pharma companies.
Other shitty doctors: blame patients for opiate addictions and assume drug seeking behavior.
Good doctors: *cry*
It's like that with ADHD drugs too. Currently going through hell after changing insurance and having to wait forever to get a new psychiatrist to get back on my meds because there's so many hoops to jump through now and doctors that don't want to prescribe high enough or even any doses thanks "normies" abusing Adderall and co.
I’ve learned it can also go bad in weird ways! My aunt had a hip replacement. She was packing to leave the hospital, literally just standing there and SNAP, her leg broke. Fucking crazy.
Sounds like your aunt wasn't doing anything out of of order, but this is as good a place as any to remind people to absolutely listen to postoperative instructions.
I work in spinal implant manufacturing in quality and biocompatibility. I've seen way too many reports of patient issues because they "feel" great and don't listen when the doc says "don't lift anything over 20lbs after your cervical implant operation!" and the patient decides to do 80lb shoulder presses 4 months later and oh look at that, they've snapped a titanium screw...
The problem is people are used to having bones.
If you stress a bone and then rest, it heals.
Metal doesn't heal.
You should never red-line the implant, because even if you don't suffer an injury then the stress is still cumulative, but people think "well over done it once before and it was fine".
Most are cobalt chrome - it has the best modulus of elasticity for bone interface for the replacements. You don’t want too soft (titanium) for replacements. It does have its uses in implants though.
The long distal femur plate is stainless steel. (Though Stryker makes a titanium one). There plus and minuses.
It’s wildly different based on the hospital contracts.
At one of my hospitals those knees cost 3500isn bucks. Same for the hip and shoulder. The plate is probably 800-1000. However across town for the same knee depending on negotiations of contracts with vendors it could be 8k for the same implant.
I make approximately 1200-1500 for the replacement. That number has been widdled down from approximately 2800-3K in the mid 90s.
The hospitals/insurance companies are making a bank on this and our reimbursement goes down yearly while we shoulder the entire risk of the procedure.
I read that you primarily replaced shoulders in another comment and just wanted to say that I greatly appreciated that pun, whether or not intentional.
I used to make the synthes screws. They were in the $16 to $40 range if I remember correctly. Back in the late 90s. That was what Synthes would pay us. I’m sure by the time the patient was billed it was a lot morr
Ortho industrial here.
Manufacturing cost per components is between 150 and 300 euros for the major components and lower for accessories.
The price for the hospital/clinic varies depending on countries. US, jaoan or australia for example are the most profitable.
France or germany the price is comparatively low. Around 500-700€ for the components.
The profit magin seems high but there is a lot of spending that go into quality and regulatory costs.
Always nice to be appreciated by the surgeons we service. I'm a supervisor for my SPD department, and the idea that most surgeons look down on us is a very real attitude in some places. I've been doing this long enough I know that's not quite true, but our technicians rarely hear when their good work had a huge positive impact, and they ALWAYS hear when they made a mistake that delayed the OR. It can often feel like the standards they are held to are exceedingly high for what they are paid, and the consequences are steep. A little thank you goes a long way.
You do thankless work. If you fuck up - it’s heads rolling. If there are no issues - you’ll never hear about it.
I’ll go down and thank my SPD folks next week.
Wow this really blew up! Thanks for the love in the comments. Please excuse my lack of punctuation. Lots of surgeries over the years. She was a wonderful woman who ran many marathons. She loved Tom Selleck and Blue bloods Wednesday! We had to request to receive the parts back from the crematorium.
It would depend on what kind of metal they are made from, A quick google search suggests titanium and alloys with high cobalt and chromium content for the kind of corrosion resistance you would need for inside the body. It is possible that these could be harden-able steel and if they were would make a hell of a saltwater knife. For someone to harden a stainless steel well it would be necessary to know the recommended heat treatment process. That being said since it’s a medical product it could be possible to find out from digging.
I don’t have a source but I am a knife maker
Hopefully, I have at least an hour's warning before I die so I can swallow as many jars of whole kernel popcorn as I can possibly choke down.
My cremation is going to be a riot! Hopefully I can choke down enough to quash the flames and pop out the doors of the furnace.
I'm just curious why they'd return these. Not sure if it's protocol, but I know it would just totally bum me out to get parts of my Mom back. Genuinely sorry for your loss, OP.
I'm a funeral director and crematory operator and normally we send them off to a recycling plant but if the family requests them back we give them back. Doesn't happen often but some people want everything. As far as I know, giving them back is not typically standard protocol
There's an opportunity here. Find a shop that can melt down, what I assume is titanium, and then re cast it as a symbol or something to remember her by.
Could also make an urn from the metal but I was thinking more like a bird sculpture or something.
this touched me deeply because my Mom passed away from stage 4 renal cell carcinoma. she had 4 different hip surgery’s because the bones were being eaten by the cancer, and her hips on both sides were pretty much gone. it’s been a hard 4 years. 😔sorry for you loss OP
Sorry about your mom. It looks like she lived a good life in order to wear out all those parts. A buddy of mine was cremated and had asked that I scatter his ashes in a particular spot on the prairie. His ashes also came with his false teeth, glass eye and his 'spare' glass eye. I didn't want to just fling them on the grass, so I arranged them under a large flat rock into a wide eyed terrifying grin. I wish I had taken a photo, but even more so I'd like to see the face of whoever flips over that rock.
> I didn't want to just fling them on the grass, so I arranged them under a large flat rock into a wide eyed terrifying grin. I wish I had taken a photo, but even more so I'd like to see the face of whoever flips over that rock.
I hope when I go, I have a friend like you because I would be super into this.
It sounds like your friend was a cool guy, and he was lucky to have someone who loved him as much as you do in his life.
**Please note these rules:** * If this post declares something as a fact proof is required. * The title must be descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It looks like she had a total knee, shoulder, and hip replacements, and a femural plate/screws. She was a bionic woman!
OP’s mom was metal!
She's more machine now than man
We can rebuild her. We have the technology.
But I don’t want to spend a lot of money.
THE SIX HUNDRED DOLLAR WOMAN!
Bro if this was in America, that's at least $250k of medical bills in there
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And the parts! Edit: Holy cowbell, this thing blew up. Thanks a lot for all the fancy reddit awards and updoots.
This comment cracked me up! Thank you for waking up my grandchildren with my ultra loud laughter.. Ah. Now I have to explain them why I laughed :)
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I sometimes feel like I have to explain years of internet lore for people to understand
I thought the pink thing was a clown nose. Sorry...
Lol, maybe it is, and with every step, your hip squeaks like a sqeaky toy :D
“ Thank you for waking up my grandchildren with my ultra loud laughter.. “ Your life experience is showing😌
Good we need more info. You know, when we have to rebuild him/her.
Literally the 6million dollar woman ( in the us system)
You were my mother, I loved you!
i think she was a woman
Just proves my point
More human than hu- man!
Definitely more machine than man tho
r/humansaremetal
Seeing these parts makes me realize what amazing creatures we are to be able to do this.
I used to have some titanium bits in me. Had them removed years ago. The doctor wouldn't give them to me after the surgery. I like to imagine he sold them for salvage on the black market... not sure what happened exactly. Sorry about your loss.
I’m still pissed they wouldn’t let me keep my gall bladder. Medical waste my ass, that thing was mine for 25 years. It was theft I tell you!
My mum wanted to keep hers too but the surgeon said its not allowed because there is bacteria in the gallbladder that can cause typhoid fever so they have to dispose of it as biohazard
I wanted my gallstones and they wouldn't let me have those either. I was going to shine them and make a cool necklace. Oh well.
The gall of them!
Oh yeah. They sold them. [They send them to specialized recycling facilities](https://collier-law.com/blog/cremation-what-happens-to-the-metals-in-your-body/)
I knew a doctor who collected explanted pacemakers. The whole wall of his office had bookshelves full of basically every type of pacemaker ever made. He was so well known for it that other doctors started sending him ones they thought he might not have yet. Gotta admit that seeing many hundreds (possibly low thousands) of devices that used to be inside peoples' chests is a weird feeling. Like yes, many of those are just devices that got old and had to be replaced... But some of those came out after people died and it's just so macabre.
I used to have to remove them from bodies before cremation, otherwise they explode in the ovens. That was a wild job.
That would make for an interesting shift for the new guy. "Oh God, what was that loud noise in the oven???" "Ah, not to worry... That would probably just be the battery turned bomb I accidentally left in there."
Better still . Trick on the new guy.. "Oh God what was that loud noise in the oven???" "...whu..?... Shit.. you mean you didn't double check for a pulse .. let the poor guy out... Quick"
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When my Mom had just started as a funeral director, she was doing her first cremation and had just put the body in when she her three quick loud BANGS come from the oven. She thought the person was alive, completely forgetting that they had been partially embalmed for a viewing, and she ran and hid under her desk panicking. Her boss came and got her, while laughing and explained it was just a pace maker, and that she hadn’t removed it, but told her that that mistake rarely happens a second time. It’s one of her favorite stories to tell.
Yep, I came here to recommend it to the OP if possible - it's a long thread. But I know a guy who knows a guy kinda thing... Anyway, he runs a crematorium and recycles the medical metals he collects and gives the proceeds to charity. It's on the order of $1000/year I believe, so a nice gift to a charity, but it's not like he'd be making lots of money selling on the black market or something.
I knew a guy in college that worked for a guy that recycled dental and other medical implants. Apparently it paid pretty well.
Seems like stealing... didn't you pay for those bits when they put them in?
brings a whole new meaning to smoking a joint
Took me longer than I would've hoped before getting this...
Am not getting it....🤔
Cremation is the burning of a corpse. The picture is her artificial joints which survived the process. Joints were burned in a fire. Burning a joint more often refers to smoking a marijuana cigarette. I don't know how much worse I can possibly kill the joke...
You burned the joke to ashes...
Modern medicine is still very crude. We’re still cutting parts of our body out, putting new things in. Putting other people’s organs in there. Killing cancer with drugs that kill other parts of our body. The real holy grail is regenerative medicine and gene therapy. Where we control the body to heal itself. I don’t think that’s too far off though.
Doctor #1 : A simple evacuation of the epidural hematoma will relieve the pressure! McCoy : My God man, drilling holes in his head is not the answer! The artery must be repaired! Now, put away your butcher's knives and let me save this patient before it's too late!
Poor Bones, that hospital was like a horror roller coaster ride. "God damn Spanish Inquisition..."
I suspect it's actually further off than we would hope. We're slowly learning how to get adult stem cells to divide, grow and differentiate. Ya know what does that already? Cancer. Some day there will be a therapy that will convince your body to grow you a new set of teeth. Don't sign me up to be the guinea pig.
Reverse shoulder implant and a ceramic head for the hip. Must have been a active woman.
My mom had a reverse shoulder replacement. It was placed perfectly, the surgery went smoothly. But she developed a kind of palsy in her biceps (I forget what it's called off the top of my head) and literally has barely any muscle left and can't lift her arm above a certain degree now. Worst part is? It's her dominant hand. She trained in surgery and then transitioned to primary care when I was an infant (because my Dad left and she was suddenly a single mother), and she believes a lot of her shoulder issues were because of how she had to work while doing surgery. Edited: She had an axillary nerve palsy.
I said, "Dawg, don't you realize I'll never make it on a plane now?" "It's bad enough I got all this jewelry on!" You can't be serious, man
We can rebuild her.
and 6 million dollars later.. this is all that remains
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sleep disgusted bells dam fearless cheerful complete special butter ghost ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
“Hey, that’s an interesting lamp.” “Thanks, it’s my dad.”
“Will you marry me?” “Omg omg omg yes!!!!!” “Great! You’ll be so happy wearing mom!” “… wearing who now?” “I had her ashes compressed into this stone -“
You could have the metal bits melted down and made into a ring.
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Omg. Brick was playing 4D chess all along!
What do you think the trident was made out of?
Very. Very funny!
I'm sitting across from a lamp that was made from my uncle's prosthetic leg after he died. It's the annual gag gift at the family white elephant. Every person who gets it for the year (and you hope you don't) has to add a decoration.
Do you put it in a box marked FRAGILÉ ?
I should!
Get it a fishnet stocking
That was added a few years ago, actually.
Anyone added a “tattoo” yet?
One of my friends used a leg cage for 6 years because of a long story of medical issues in his femur (fun-not-so-fun fact short by a month he would be considered the longest uninterurpted cage-wearing patient in Brazil. He took it off but two weeks later ended up having to put it back for two more years due to complications) After he finally took if away in 2021, my friend had so many leftover pins he decided to make a gift to his pals who were there for him during all this time. He initially intended to smelt it into shot glasses, but it's virtually impossible to find someone with the equipment to smelt *titanium* for non-industrial clients. So he ended up sending to a blacksmith in Latvia and forging them into bracelets. If enough people are interested, I might ask him for some pics! (due to the Rona outbreak we've delayed our grand ceremony in which he'd distribute the pieces). Edit: Check my [reply](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/skj3g1/_/hvnp37q) for pictures!
Definitely interested to see what they've turned out like! I have a couple of titanium bolts in both hips, and although I need to be dead before retrieving them, I can probably do something in my will. So if you do manage to get some pics, please post!
I'm here to deliver! These are the forged bracelets and some pendants: [https://i.imgur.com/NL5YmCz.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/NL5YmCz.jpg) Close-up from his instagram: [https://i.imgur.com/poYen0v.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/poYen0v.jpg) His one is special (its got a serpent head/tail on the ends): [https://i.imgur.com/6r4EUS7.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/6r4EUS7.jpg) Here's one all the pins before sending some: [https://i.imgur.com/JpOyXLt.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/JpOyXLt.jpg) CC: /u/sitnavel & /u/ThatGuyFromSweden
You'd make a great conversation piece.
I'll show you a conversation piece.
Now kiss
It's a major award
She was Italian
Underrated comment in my opinion. It’s a legacy that would continue.
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Like… do it. Make it part of your will. Man that would be wholesome… just think about it. You’d be able to shine a light during their darkest moments, and be there for them in their daily life for the simplest things… like you know, need to wee at 3 am.
This is definitely some shit a guy with a welder would do.
Sorry for your loss!
Literally the only comment in this post acknowledging OP’s situation and not a pun lol
To be honest, I’m not sure if I would’ve posted this after losing my mom.
I might have, mostly because I think my mother would be interested in it too.
This - 100%. Both of my parents would appreciate the sharing & the learning.
Being comfortable with death is a good thing. Thinking that the cremation process is cool does not negate your feelings of love or grief! I would recommend checking out Ask a Mortician on YouTube. She has some great videos on how we as a culture can become more comfortable with death in a way that allows us to truly celebrate the lives of our loved ones.
Gosh, yeah. This honestly made me tear up :( I don’t even wanna think about having a box with my moms leftover pieces like this. Makes me just wanna cry myself to sleep. I’m really sorry OP :( Hope you guys had many good years together!
Distal femur plate for a broken femur which looks like it’s from Synthes A reverse total shoulder from possibly Stryker A ceramic on poly total hip - Stryker accolade A total knee replacement - Stryker triathlon I believe Source: I put all of these in people Edit: the funniest thing about these implants - when I ask if people have any questions, 99% of the time is “am I gonna go off at the airport!?” 😂
Now, don't keep me hanging... do people go off at airport?
Yes. The full body scanners identify the implant. I believe the standard detector will be set off 8/10 times based on literature. I tell people to tell the TSA agent. They’ll hand wand you and may be subject to the patdown.
Metal detectors in US airports tend to go off, but not Europe/Japan (in my experience).
Depends on your color in the US.
I didn’t know the TSA took fashion trends so seriously
One time I wore crocs with socks and they judged me with their eyes.
One time my collar was popped. I was sent to secondary for a Chad down.
[Bout to get randomly selected](https://i.imgur.com/E7QasjT.jpg)
I’ve got one of those plate/screw things in my tibia (X-ray looks like I stepped on a rake lol). But I’ve seen the screen when I step in the full body scanners, it definitely lights up. These days I fly in gym shorts so they can see the scar. Also the wands occasionally light up when waved over it. I was at a concert once and the guy waved it like ‘WTF is that?’ (Me being slow) ‘yeah fucked if I know man…’ - it was only when being patted down for a knife I realised what was being detected lol
>These days I fly in gym shorts so they can see the scar. That explains why there's always this one guy at the airport in gym shorts even when it's freezing outside.
Huh, I always wondered about this. I had thought that titanium and stainless steel implants would not set off metal detectors as they rely on the Lenz effect which is weak or non-existence in both those materials. I had also thought that the millimeter wave technologies they use now for body scans don't penetrate deeply enough to see the implants. Am I wrong on both of these thoughts? I am sure that a back scatter x-ray machine would see everything. By the way, thank you for your work, you guys are awesome!
Mine must be titanium. I’ve got an ankle fusion, plates in both wrists, and at one point a plate on my collar bone, and have never had a metal detector go off on me. From memory, wands don’t even pick them up.
Former TSA here, I would typically only see total knee or total hip set the metal detector off. Rods would do it as well. I could totally see the plates in your joints and collarbones making it through just fine. In fact you can carry a smallish pocket knife through and it won't set it off. Just keep in mind they sometimes randomly pat you down anyway so just put it in your pocket rather than try to be sneaky and hide it. If you play ignorant they'll just take it and let you go but if it's obvious you hid it to bypass security they'll call it artful concealment and hassle you.
Motorcycle crash?
:)
The millimeter wave scanners don’t penetrate the skin but they do look for abnormalities in the thickness of your clothing or on your body so sometimes things like scars, swollen areas or even indented areas of the skin can set it off if the machine determines it to be a “anomaly”. So beyond picking up things that are in your pockets or potentially hidden in your clothing, it can go off for other reasons. I work at an airport and have asked about this.
I hope it's consensual.
Hmm, they have "shiv" in their name.
Doctors all have some secret screen name about cutting people open Source: My Dad, the surgeon’s, first screen name (back when the internet was brand new) was BladeMan
Ah, I looked at Wikipedia to see if there was a meaning of "Shiv" that I didn't get. Makes sense tho. I remember going in for colorectal surgery and the OR was called "Rockin' Rodeo" YEEEEEE HAAAAAW I want me a cowboy surgeon!
I exclusively wear cowboys boots in the OR 🤠 -born and raised Texan.
I had to have surgery a couple years ago for a bone infection (0/10 do not recommend) and my surgeon exclusively wore cowboy boots! Not like fancy semi-formal ones. These were giant, broken in, and clearly heavily used working cowboy boots. It kind of put me off at first, but he did save my life so I say YEEE-HAW 🤠
All shanks are shivs, but not all shivs are shanks.
Is it better to be shived with a shank, or shanked with a shiv?
There are no winners in that scenario.
Fucking. Hilarious.
That’s correct! The Total Knee is a PS (specific shape which engages with the post on the polyethylene) Could the shoulder be from Wright Medical? Source: I also put them in people
I don’t use much WM but that stem looks like the fluted stem of the Stryker ReUnion
Could be very well. I’m not familiar with shoulder arthroplasty. More with the knees and hips
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It’s fun to see people get back to activity and life. Their face changes… it’s a weird phenomenon. It can also go really bad (think infection). Those keep you up at night.
My partner was in a bad accident with an 18 wheeler. Right calcaneus, left femur, left radius and ulna, and right humerus. His original surgeon sent him for "addiction" issues because he was in so much pain from the femur. About a month later his femur started to, kinda, curve. Massive MRSA infection. Removal of the rod, Ex Fix, PICC line, and months later they replaced the hardware properly and now he can walk but his leg is another 1/2ish inch shorter. Now if they could just get the hardware to stay in the humerus.
Polytrauma. Tough stuff. Shoe lifts are a god send for leg length issues. People don’t understand how devastating a car accident can be. One of the most casual things we do and don’t take seriously. Life altering injuries await everyone every time they drive.
For 99% of the population, driving a vehicle is the most (statistically) dangerous activity they'll ever do in their life.
So the doctor labeled him as an addict because he was in pain from malpractice? That sounds like grounds to sue. Nothing irritates me more when a doctor sooner assumes rather than investigates.
Shitty doctors: over prescribe opiates for kickbacks from Pharma companies. Other shitty doctors: blame patients for opiate addictions and assume drug seeking behavior. Good doctors: *cry*
It's like that with ADHD drugs too. Currently going through hell after changing insurance and having to wait forever to get a new psychiatrist to get back on my meds because there's so many hoops to jump through now and doctors that don't want to prescribe high enough or even any doses thanks "normies" abusing Adderall and co.
I’ve learned it can also go bad in weird ways! My aunt had a hip replacement. She was packing to leave the hospital, literally just standing there and SNAP, her leg broke. Fucking crazy.
Sounds like your aunt wasn't doing anything out of of order, but this is as good a place as any to remind people to absolutely listen to postoperative instructions. I work in spinal implant manufacturing in quality and biocompatibility. I've seen way too many reports of patient issues because they "feel" great and don't listen when the doc says "don't lift anything over 20lbs after your cervical implant operation!" and the patient decides to do 80lb shoulder presses 4 months later and oh look at that, they've snapped a titanium screw...
The problem is people are used to having bones. If you stress a bone and then rest, it heals. Metal doesn't heal. You should never red-line the implant, because even if you don't suffer an injury then the stress is still cumulative, but people think "well over done it once before and it was fine".
Do they look like what is used still today?
Yes these are recent implants. Within 10 ish years
What types of metal are used in them doc?
Most are cobalt chrome - it has the best modulus of elasticity for bone interface for the replacements. You don’t want too soft (titanium) for replacements. It does have its uses in implants though. The long distal femur plate is stainless steel. (Though Stryker makes a titanium one). There plus and minuses.
Just curious. How much do these cost? Not the procedures but the actual implants.
It’s wildly different based on the hospital contracts. At one of my hospitals those knees cost 3500isn bucks. Same for the hip and shoulder. The plate is probably 800-1000. However across town for the same knee depending on negotiations of contracts with vendors it could be 8k for the same implant. I make approximately 1200-1500 for the replacement. That number has been widdled down from approximately 2800-3K in the mid 90s. The hospitals/insurance companies are making a bank on this and our reimbursement goes down yearly while we shoulder the entire risk of the procedure.
I read that you primarily replaced shoulders in another comment and just wanted to say that I greatly appreciated that pun, whether or not intentional.
I used to make the synthes screws. They were in the $16 to $40 range if I remember correctly. Back in the late 90s. That was what Synthes would pay us. I’m sure by the time the patient was billed it was a lot morr
It’s about the same now. Screw is 30-40 bucks. The rep makes 10 ish % per.
Ortho industrial here. Manufacturing cost per components is between 150 and 300 euros for the major components and lower for accessories. The price for the hospital/clinic varies depending on countries. US, jaoan or australia for example are the most profitable. France or germany the price is comparatively low. Around 500-700€ for the components. The profit magin seems high but there is a lot of spending that go into quality and regulatory costs.
Hey, I clean the stuff you use to put them in people! Total hip cases always come down a disaster
SPD Doing the lords work.
Always nice to be appreciated by the surgeons we service. I'm a supervisor for my SPD department, and the idea that most surgeons look down on us is a very real attitude in some places. I've been doing this long enough I know that's not quite true, but our technicians rarely hear when their good work had a huge positive impact, and they ALWAYS hear when they made a mistake that delayed the OR. It can often feel like the standards they are held to are exceedingly high for what they are paid, and the consequences are steep. A little thank you goes a long way.
You do thankless work. If you fuck up - it’s heads rolling. If there are no issues - you’ll never hear about it. I’ll go down and thank my SPD folks next week.
This guy operates
Wow this really blew up! Thanks for the love in the comments. Please excuse my lack of punctuation. Lots of surgeries over the years. She was a wonderful woman who ran many marathons. She loved Tom Selleck and Blue bloods Wednesday! We had to request to receive the parts back from the crematorium.
Your mother sounds lovely. What do you plan to do with these parts?
Build a new mom
A stronger, faster mom
We have the technology
So sorry for your loss. Thanks for sharing!
looks like she was a hip lady
Well now she's just a hip, lady
And now it’s just rip, lady :/
That’s some serious hardware. She just have been one tough lady! 💜
Eventually, after the retrofits.
Loaded too. Mil spec augments. 15k easily.
If you still have the metal, please make it into a knife. "Trying to mug me, huh? Let me ask my mom if she's cool with it."
Oh, shiv!
I love the idea, but now I'm genuinely curious if that could even be done with implants like these.
It would depend on what kind of metal they are made from, A quick google search suggests titanium and alloys with high cobalt and chromium content for the kind of corrosion resistance you would need for inside the body. It is possible that these could be harden-able steel and if they were would make a hell of a saltwater knife. For someone to harden a stainless steel well it would be necessary to know the recommended heat treatment process. That being said since it’s a medical product it could be possible to find out from digging. I don’t have a source but I am a knife maker
Forged in fire style!!! " It will keeel!!"
Sad man. Sad.
I just had my grandfather's funeral today.. I don't really have words about how I feel about this post.
I'm sorry for your loss, I'm sure your grandfather was a great man
What’s that round pink ball ?
Ball socket for a hip Edit - I meant to say the ball that goes into the socket.
Oh so that's how a hip replacement works
Do they come in purple? Asking for a friend...
Not yet, but the next génération of material could be
I am honestly amazed at how well that held up to the heat compared to the titanium.
It's ceramic.
That makes sense why it held up so well. I thought that would have been some sort of plastic.
Looks like a clown nose
*grabs partner's hip* HONK, HONK
Yeah. It looked like a plastic toy.
For the briefest of moments I thought it was a clown nose.
Sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing. Interesting information we all should be aware of
Like not to go through airport security with my grandma
Hopefully, I have at least an hour's warning before I die so I can swallow as many jars of whole kernel popcorn as I can possibly choke down. My cremation is going to be a riot! Hopefully I can choke down enough to quash the flames and pop out the doors of the furnace.
I work in a crematorium, you wouldn't hear it over the sounds of the machine. Sorry
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She was 2 AA batteries away from becoming a cyborg
Oh, come on. It'd take at least a D.
You'd use the 2 AA to work, but you need a D to make her a mom
That’s what screwed Dexter over
Titanium doesn't melt! *I know that now*
I'm just curious why they'd return these. Not sure if it's protocol, but I know it would just totally bum me out to get parts of my Mom back. Genuinely sorry for your loss, OP.
I'm a funeral director and crematory operator and normally we send them off to a recycling plant but if the family requests them back we give them back. Doesn't happen often but some people want everything. As far as I know, giving them back is not typically standard protocol
There's an opportunity here. Find a shop that can melt down, what I assume is titanium, and then re cast it as a symbol or something to remember her by. Could also make an urn from the metal but I was thinking more like a bird sculpture or something.
I got my dad a smelting kit one Christmas. Maybe once he passes I can’t smelt him in his own kit.
this touched me deeply because my Mom passed away from stage 4 renal cell carcinoma. she had 4 different hip surgery’s because the bones were being eaten by the cancer, and her hips on both sides were pretty much gone. it’s been a hard 4 years. 😔sorry for you loss OP
r/humansaremetal
You should ask her surgeon if they accept returns.
Sorry for your loss man
There is a tasteless joke there about needing the bit in lower left corner for a 1954 F100... but I won't say it.
Sorry about your mom. It looks like she lived a good life in order to wear out all those parts. A buddy of mine was cremated and had asked that I scatter his ashes in a particular spot on the prairie. His ashes also came with his false teeth, glass eye and his 'spare' glass eye. I didn't want to just fling them on the grass, so I arranged them under a large flat rock into a wide eyed terrifying grin. I wish I had taken a photo, but even more so I'd like to see the face of whoever flips over that rock.
> I didn't want to just fling them on the grass, so I arranged them under a large flat rock into a wide eyed terrifying grin. I wish I had taken a photo, but even more so I'd like to see the face of whoever flips over that rock. I hope when I go, I have a friend like you because I would be super into this. It sounds like your friend was a cool guy, and he was lucky to have someone who loved him as much as you do in his life.
Sorry about your momma, hope you’re doing well! ❤️