Making a list, checking it twice. via INSH

Not everyone is cut out to perform autopsies.
In addition to all the necessary training and certifications, it also takes considerable willpower.
After all, you're dealing almost exclusively with dead bodies here.
If the job is anything but glamorous, someone has to do it.
Then too, sometimes they make discoveries that truly defy description.
Redditor atro_bella was curious to learn about the wildest discoveries made by anyone who'd ever performed an autopsy, leading them to ask:
"People who perform autopsies, what was the weirdest/most unique anomaly you’ve found?"
"In a previous career I was a US army CID agent, and every death investigation that required an autopsy we had to send an agent to photograph and observe for the case file."
"One guy who had been stabbed through the heart with a steak knife by his wife was in peak physical shape, but when the pathologist pulled his brain out he said 'look at this'."
"I have no biology training, but the golf ball sized tumor on his brainstem was obvious even to me."
"Doctor said he had maybe 90 days to live at the time of his death."
"The wife went to prison for murder, and all she had to do was wait a few months and she'd have been a hero Army widow."- Underwater_Karma
"I performed autopsies for almost a decade."
"The most unique thing I saw was uterine didelphys with a septate vagina."
"Basically, the vagina split in two and went to two separate cervixes and two separate uterine cavities."
"The two parts of the uterus fused into one heart-shaped body."
"I only saw that once."- yeahprobablydrunk
"Performing an autopsy on an elderly patient with cardiac valve disease and found a 3 cm white plastic disc lodged in the ostium of one of the renal arteries."
"It was identical to the disc of the patient's tilting valve type mechanical aortic valve which was in place, intact, and functioning normally."
"We had no explanation for why an extra valve disc was present far downstream from the heart."
"An in depth review of the patient's surgical history revealed that many years prior, during the installation of the patient's aortic valve, the cage for the valve broke while being installed and the disc had flown into the aorta and couldn't be retrieved."
"The surgeon immediately removed the broken cage, replaced the entire apparatus with another replacement valve and completed the surgery."
"We found no evidence that there was any subsequent investigation to determine the whereabouts of the lost valve component."
"So for years (apparently unknown to most of his caretakers and even potentially to the patient) the patient had a cardiac valve disc lodged in his renal artery ostium, in such a way that it was non-obstructing and stable, and it was discovered as an incidental finding at the patient's autopsy."- vonGekko
"I did an autopsy of a young kid around 10 yrs old who had hydrocephalus and was altho quadriplegic yet retained some of his normal functions."
"Like talking and understanding, albeit minimally."
"When I opened his skull, there was no brain."
"I was shocked."
"This was my first time witnessing something like this but there was approx 1.5L of fluid and just an empty skull."
"The brain was so severely atrophied it was tinier than a golf ball."
"Amazing how he survived till 10!"- Danger-Doctor-419
"An old woman with an incredibly thick skull all the way around."
"Her brain was much much smaller than it should have been but according to her family she was fully functional and displayed no deficits of any kind."
"She actually ran her own cheese making company and died from a carbon monoxide leak."
"Strangest case I ever saw!"- User5711
"I worked with a guy who had a lot of emotional baggage."
"When he was a teen, he and his younger brother were rough housing, and he pushed his younger brother against a wall."
"He said his brother stood there for a moment saying he didn't feel right, then dropped dead."
"In the autopsy the coroner discovered the younger brother's brainstem had been 'dangling by a thread', and any bump to the head could have detached it."
"That he made it through the toddler years of learning to walk was a miracle."
"Crazy story, and I felt bad for the guy because he still blamed himself for what was truly just a freak accident."- PumpkinGlass1393
"Situs Inversus."
"Basically all the organs were in mirrored anatomical positions from where they should normally be."
"So so cool."- PaperClipehz
"Not a regular autopsy performer, but I do a lot with forensic archaeology (mostly natural mummies now) and had to take an A&P class that involved cadaver dissection."
"Female patient died at 102 of natural causes."
"We found that the joint of her left elbow was replaced with something that legitimately looked like a car part."
"It turns out she’d lived somewhere in Soviet Eastern Europe and had the procedure done some time in the 1960s, and it looked like that replacement was done with whatever they had available."
"It was absolutely incredible."- amycusfinch
"An accessory spleen just hanging out attached to the intestines."- mamallama2020
"As part of high school anatomy we went on a field trip to a local college to work with the bodies donated to science."
"They had a sign 'If you can’t find it they don’t have one'."
"A nearby body was missing some part of their digestive track (I forget what. Appendix?)."
"They searched up and down."
"Just wasn’t there."
"No scar indicating removal either."
"Another body was a dead biker."
"Heavy drinker."
"His body adjusted though."
"His liver was seriously twice the size of anyone else’s there (or more) stretching all the way across his torso."
"That liver was a beast."- drakethrice
"Veterinarian."
"I had a calf that died out in the field at about 14 days after a couple of hours of respiratory distress that did not respond to antibiotics."
"We were expecting it to be pneumonia, which is fairly common in calves."
"He had a double outflow right ventricle, and just this little flap of the nonfunctional left ventricle, so the blood entered the right atrium, went to the RV, out to the lungs, and back to the left atrium, where it entered the RV through a common AV valve."
"The blood also left the right ventricle through the aorta, so both pulmonary artery and aorta came off the right ventricle."
"There was significant dilation of the pulmonary artery from pulmonary hypertension and he developed congestive heart failure."
"Pretty neat, a bit sad, and very unexpected."
"Really cool to see a single ventricle heart in a mammal, almost like a lizard, and wild that he made it to 14 days like that."- daabilge
"I've never performed an autopsy, but my friends (they were 3 siblings) growing up had a pathologist for a father."
"I was over their house so much, that I became a fixture in the family/included in most of their adventures."
"Me and the oldest son got a hold of some liquor one night and got wasted."
"My father is an alcoholic, and it gave me a bad home life/probably was a significant factor as to why I basically moved in with them."
"We were caught."
"I was nervous and sad, expecting them to deem me a bad influence, and abandon me, a cycle I was familiar with."
"Their parents beckoned me into the dining room, wanting a private talk."
"I braced for the worst, but Instead ,they sat me down, told me they loved me, and that I had to be careful with alcohol due to addiction having genetic components."
"We talked a long time, and when it was over, they informed Me I wasn't off the hook yet."
"Apparently they had a surprise for me and their son, which would blow my mind."
"The next morning we were woken, and told to get dressed and get in the car with my friends dad (the pathologist)."
"He drove us to his work, where he showed us a cadaver and the liver of a middle-aged man who died of cirrhosis."
"It burned in my brain, and I never forgot it."
"It had such an impact on me to see how alcohol destroys the body."
"While I wish I could say I escaped alcoholism, I would go on to have my own struggles."
"But they probably would have been a lot worse if it weren't for this experience!"- Pitiful_Deer4909
"A horseshoe kidney, both kidneys were fused at the lower ends."
"Another person had a missing lung lobe, so two lobes on each side, instead of two and three (without having had any surgery)."- notonthenightshift
"In Medical School I attended one Autopsy where the Patient had a fistula (connection) between his Aortic artery and his Esophagus."
"He bled to death that way."
"Scary to think about that."- TyrosinLennyster
We have to be grateful to coroners and medical examiners, without whom so many people would have so many unanswered questions.
What we tend to overlook, however, is that they are often left with even more unanswered questions after finishing their examinations...
TikTok crochet artist Naomi Minor impressed Doja Cat and her fanbase with a crazed and creative crochet plushie of the American rapper and singer.
Minor is a visual artist and expert crocheter who has her own online store featuring cartoon and celebrity characters with looks inspired by the Raving Rabbids video game. Premiering in 2009, the Rabbids characters are portrayed as alien, anthropomorphic rabbits with two prominent buck teeth.
In the video game, these characters rave and scream in gibberish. This inspiration led Minor to create unique and quirky plushies of Disney Princesses, including Ranzel (Princess Rapunzel), Tia (Princess Tiana), Arie (Princess Ariel), and Moa (Princess Moana).
Minor recently created a plushie fit for the controversial beauty of Doja Cat, who has been known for shaving off her hair and eyebrows on Instagram Live, donning feline-inspired runway looks, and posting monstrous tattoos on her body.
The artist has also made headlines for her treatment of her fan base, known as the Kittenz, downplaying COVID-19 as the flu, and using racist and homophobic slurs. Her viral songs include "Say So," "Paint The Town Red", and "Boss Bitch" from the Harley Quinn featured movie Birds of Prey.
Sure to raise eyebrows, Minor wrote in the caption about her latest creation:
“This has to be one of my favorite plushies so far! What celebrity should I crochet next?”
In the viral TikTok video, Minor uses the “I’m Amanda, I’m six” audio from the "Playdate with a Predator" PSA to debut her Doja Cat plushie. The doll is dressed in red lingerie, covered in a white t-shirt and chains, with a removable black skirt that Minor pulls off.
You can watch the video below:
@naomicartoons This has to be one of my favorite plushies so far! Which celebrity should I crochet next?
Minor also posted the making of the adorable plushie with the singer’s tattoos crocheted into the doll’s back and arms. Messing up only once, it took the crocheter about ten and a half hours to create.
The “Making of Doja Plushie” video can be seen below:
@naomicartoons Doja Cat commented on my previous video which is crazyyy! Doja, I wanna send you your own personalized plushie!!!🕷️ (This specific one has already been sold and shipped out weeks ago)
With 4.8 million likes, Minor’s Plushie of Doja Cat caught the attention of not only the Kittenz, but the inspiration herself. Doja Cat reposted the video and commented:
@dojacat/TikTok
Minor replied that the doll is a custom order and offered to remake it:
“Omg!!! It was a custom order that someone had requested but I would LOVE to remake it for you!!!❤️”
According to Minor’s website, it takes a custom order up to 4-5 weeks, while pre-made plushies ship within a week. The pre-made plushies can cost $200 to $400. So, fans might have to wait a few weeks for the custom-made Doja Plushie to be united with the singer.
In the meantime, Minor received praise for her deranged depiction of the singer:
@sidney_blair20/TikTok
@misterpreda/TikTok
@jazzmakeslife35/TikTok
@dr_doge26/TikTok
@lotus9star/TikTok
@s1bhq/TikTok
@hhhkluu/ITikTok
@kxmberlysxerra/TikTok
@notbeccagoldberg/TikTok
And others commented on what she should make next:
@micaruns/TikTok
@taye_squared/TikTok
@livvyy.7/TikTok
@creotivity/TikTok
With most of her pre-made designs sold out, Naomi Minor is sure to gain more business with the demented yet adorable plushie dolls. You can catch more of Naomi’s work on her TikTok channel @naomicartoons.
Though artificial intelligence has been around and mingling with our daily lives for years, it's been particularly prevalent in the last few years with the introduction of ChatGPT and other similar online tools.
Publications have had to become increasingly mindful about where they source their information, as articles written by AI are often flawed, embellished, or a conglomeration of uncited sources.
Major publications have also gained the public's trust over time, and presenting information that isn't actually written by the publication's staff would hurt their community's trust, as well.
So there's no question that readers of the Chicago Sun-Timeswere disheartened to learn that the publication had used AI tools to write at least one of their articles.
Twitter (X) user and fiction author Patricia Correll pointed out that the publication used AI to write a "Summer reading list for 2025," saying that the article did not have a byline—and there were at least eight titles that did not exist.
The Chicago Sun-Times published an upcoming summer books list that is obviously AI. The clues are that there is no byline and at least 8 of these titles do not exist. pic.twitter.com/SfhZpG456C
— Patricia Correll (@Author_PCorrell) May 20, 2025
Presumably, the writer behind the AI-generated article prompted ChatGPT to generate a list of suggested books to read in summer 2025.
The first problem, beyond the fact that AI was used, is that the prompt was ineffective.
Usually, when major publications like Book Riot or Publishers Weekly or the LA Review of Books put together a list of books to read for the summer, they'll choose popular titles from the same year.
Using this year as an example, a summer reading list would contain popular titles published between January and June of 2025, perhaps with a particularly hot title from November and December 2024 thrown in.
This list of fifteen titles, however, contains five books that were published between 1954 and 2012, nowhere near 2025.
For the curious, the real titles are the last five listed: Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (published in 1954), Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (published in 2012), Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury (published in 1957), Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman (published in 2007), and Atonement by Ian McEwan (published in 2001).
This brings us to the second problem, which is that fake books were generated as reading options.
Out of 15 suggested books to read for the summer, 10 of them were fake. The authors mentioned are all real writers, like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo author Taylor Jenkins Reid and Where the Crawdads Sing author Delia Owens. But the book titles associated with them are not real, and the synopses for them are similarly strange and laughable.
Rebecca Makkai, one of the authors who was featured with a fake book title, called the Chicago Sun-Times out on Bluesky.
"WHAT. THE ACTUAL. F**K."
"'Chicago Sun-Times seems to have used AI to write its summer reading list of BOOKS THAT DO NOT EXIST."
"I did not write a book called 'Boiling Point.' [Rumaan Alam] and Min Jin Lee and Percival Everett, etc. etc., did not write these books."
"WTAF."
Makkai then quipped in the comment section, referring to her previous publication of The Great Believers:
"Also, everyone knows that if I ever write a follow-up to 'The Great Believers,' it will be called '2 Great 2 Believe'!"
"Also, I love that the last four are just legit books that everyone's already known about forever. Like the AI just got tired of making stuff up and was like, 'How about 'Atonement'?'"
Also everyone knows that if I ever write a followup to The Great Believers it will be called 2 Great 2 Believe!
— Rebecca Makkai (@rebeccamakkai.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Also I love that the last four are just legit books that everyone's already known about forever. 😂 Like the AI just got tired of making stuff up and was like "How about Atonement"
— Rebecca Makkai (@rebeccamakkai.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Readers were alarmed on Makkai's behalf, as well as all the authors impacted by this.
In addition to my multi-layered anger, I'm kind of annoyed on your behalf that AI didn't realize you'd had a whole other book come out post-Great Believers.
— Abby Olcese (@abbyolcese.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 5:22 PM
I know this is a minor point in the overall nonsense of this, but I am stuck on why your imaginary book’s imaginary climate scientist has wealthy clients who are targets of eco-activism? Are they paying her to not do her job?
— Danielle Evans (@daniellevalore.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Your entry may be fictional but it does answer the question, “what would bring author Rebecca Makkai to her boiling point?”
— Joel Calahan (@joelcalahan.com) May 20, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Whoa. Jaw dropping. Seems like that might be illegal….
— Marianne Malone (@mariannemalone.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 5:19 PM
You didn’t write it, but it seems you have reached it, as have many of us. Enough with this artificial stupidity.
— David DeGusta (@davidwrites1.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Fellow author and Book Rioteditor Kelly Jensen was alarmed by the Chicago Sun-Times' use of AI.
"This is the future of book recommendations when libraries are defunded and dismantled. Trained professionals are removed in exchange for this made up, inaccurate garbage."
"Are you fighting yet?"
This is the future of book recommendations when libraries are defunded and dismantled. Trained professionals are removed in exchange for this made up, inaccurate garbage. Are you fighting yet?
[image or embed]
— kelly jensen (@heykellyjensen.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 1:54 PM
With all of the online backlash, the staff at the Chicago Sun-Times finally spoke up about the article.
"We are looking into how this made it into print as we speak. It is not editorial content and was not created by, or approved by, the Sun-Times newsroom."
"We value your trust in our reporting and take this very seriously. More info will be provided soon."
Soon after, the staff provided an official statement about the incident, claiming that the reading list had been provided by a "third party syndicate" and had not been directly vetted or approved by the Sun-Times editorial staff.
The CST Guild is aware of the third-party “summer guide” content in the May 18 edition of the Sun-Times newspaper. This was a syndicated section made externally without the knowledge of the members of our newsroom. We’re deeply disturbed that AI-generated content was printed alongside our work.
— Chicago Sun-Times Guild (@cstguild.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 8:24 PM
We take great pride in the union-produced journalism that goes into the respected pages of our newspaper and on our website. The fact that it was 60+ pages of this “content” is very concerning — primarily for our relationship with our audience but also for our union’s jurisdiction.
— Chicago Sun-Times Guild (@cstguild.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Our members go to great lengths to build trust with our sources and communities and are horrified by this slop syndication. We call on Chicago Public Media management to do everything it can to prevent repeating this disaster in the future.
— Chicago Sun-Times Guild (@cstguild.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Readers of the Chicago Sun-Times were left skeptical of what to expect from the publication in the future.
As a print subscriber and Founding CST Member, I am so disappointed that AI-generated content was used at all. WTF.
— Jill Koch (@jillster.bsky.social) May 21, 2025 at 3:22 PM
What evidence do you have that you yourselves aren’t using AI too? How are we supposed to trust you after this?
— a grassland chase 🌾🌾🌾🌾 (@chasesolidago.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 9:45 PM
If there’s any moment in time to plant a flag for human-made journalism, this would be it. Make a policy. Make it a selling point.
— a grassland chase 🌾🌾🌾🌾 (@chasesolidago.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Hi : This happened because you don’t want to pay living wages to real humans and want to outsource your company to algorithms
— zbo1.bsky.social (@zbo1.bsky.social) May 21, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Embarrassing for you. Features don’t just fall onto the newsprint at the press.
— Roxane Gay (@roxanegay.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 6:17 PM
it's not an ad insert, and it wouldn't be an excuse for not knowing what you put in your newspaper anyway.
— michael spins (@michaelspins.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
obviously it wasn't created by the newsroom. it was generated by AI
— Jalane Schmidt 📢✊🏾🏴🌈🇨🇺🇺🇦🍉YIMBY🏘️🏢 (@jalaneschmidt.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Perhaps they should have evaluated it before stuffing it into their paper, as you would expect a professional newspaper editor to do.
— emote_control (@emote-control.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 10:56 PM
It's not a surprise that AI is finding its way into publications that readers have trusted for years, if not decades, but it's alarming when it's so obvious and inaccurate.
While this might have been a syndicated column that was created outside of the newsroom, quality checks exist to catch this sort of thing, and those measures could have been impacted by funding issues.
Music icon Neil Young criticized President Donald Trump for attacking rocker Bruce Springsteen, saying that Trump spends more time "thinking about what rockers are saying" than focusing on helping the American people.
During a recent concert in Manchester, England, Springsteen called out Trump, denouncing a “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.” The rock legend also condemned Trump's approach to dissent, saying U.S. authorities under Trump “are persecuting people for using their right to speech and voicing their dissent.”
Afterward, Trump threatened Springsteen, saying the rocker "ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country." The president said there would be consequences for the "Highly Overrated" Springsteen for going "to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States."
Now Young has come to Springsteen's defense, writing the following on his official website:
“Bruce and thousands of musicians think you are ruining America. You worry about that instead of the dyin’ kids in Gaza. That’s your problem. I am not scared of you. Neither are the rest of us."
"You shut down FEMA when we needed it most. That’s your problem Trump. STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT ROCKERS ARE SAYING. Think about saving America from the mess you made.”
Appearing to a reference a post former FBI Director James Comey made last week that the Trump administration characterized as a "threat" against the president, Young added:
“Remember what the White House is? 86/47??? That’s what you think about. You are forgetting your real job. You work for us. Wake up Republicans! This guy is out of control. We need a real president!”
And in a separate post, Young thanked Springsteen directly:
“As a Canadian-American dual citizen, I stand with the great majority, thanking you for speaking so eloquently and truthfully on behalf of the American people. We are with you my old friend. Your great songs of America ring true as you sing them to Europe and the world!”
Many appreciated Young for speaking out.
Young's response came after Pearl Jam rocker Eddie Vedder told an audience in Pittsburgh that Trump's response to Springsteen "had nothing to do with the issues." He added that "all that we heard were personal attacks and threats that nobody else should try to use their microphones or voice in public or they’ll be shut down."
Further lamenting the decline of free speech in the U.S., Vedder stressed that Springsteen "has always been as pro-American with his values and liberty, and his justice has always remained intact."
Texas Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett called out Trump's administration for their "political theater" after ICE agents clashed with several Democratic members of Congress who toured an ICE detention center in New Jersey earlier this month.
As DHS agents sought to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for trespassing at a New Jersey ICE detention facility, New Jersey Democratic Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Robert Menendez and LaMonica McIver appeared to scuffle with the agents, as they protested the mayor's arrest. Subsequently, while Baraka was released, Trump's interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Aline Habba charged McIver with assaulting the agents in a decisive escalation in Trump's weaponization of his Justice Department.
Notably, Crockett stressed that video footage shows that the Democrats who were targeted—particularly McIver—were shown on video to have acted "very calmly" about the situation.
She also commented that the incident offers an example of why President Donald Trump hired Fox News pundits (a group that includes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth) to serve in his administration given that the incident—like other Trump administration controversies—serves as fodder not unlike reality television that demonizes Democrats to the delight of Trump's base.
She said the following while addressing a GOP-led House judiciary subcommittee hearing:
“Frankly, it is sad that we do have to go through this kind of political theater because, listen, we all know what it is — that’s why they hired everybody from Fox News because all they’re trying to do is put on for a show. This is not ‘The Apprentice’ show."
“This is supposed to be about the American people, and I want us to start to refocus our attention on the American people and stop demonizing every doggone person that ends up in custody of ICE because they are not necessarily demons just because ICE decided to round them up.”
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Many concurred with Crockett's assessment.
Jason Houser, who served as ICE chief of staff under President Joe Biden and testified as the Democrats’ witness during a hearing titled “Examining Threats to ICE Operations," noted that he oversaw “hundreds” of visits from members of Congress and immigration advocacy groups while in his former position and that the incident earlier this month was "not normal."
He accused ICE in its present state of "overreaching," saying the agency has been “reckless” in targeting people “without criminal records, shutting down legal pathways and revoking protections.”
Houser added that ultimately "strength comes from strategy, not rounding up the wrong people for the wrong reasons."
Amid all this, it's worth remembering that Fox News, which largely marches in lockstep behind the president, has been repeatedly sued in court for peddling misinformation and disinformation—and at one point was made to pay nearly $800 million for 2020 election lies. Propaganda about ICE arrests would not be outside the network's wheelhouse.