It's often said that war is Hell... but in this instance, I would suggest sitting down can also
bring tears to one's eyes.
bring tears to one's eyes.
Quote:Hospital evacuated as 'man found to have WW1 artillery shell in rectum'Archived Standard Article:
The discovery of the century-old shell prompted a hospital evacuation amid fears it could
explode.
'A French hospital was reportedly forced to evacuate in dramatic scenes after medical staff
discovered an unexploded WW1 artillery shell stuck in a man’s rectum. On Saturday, bomb
disposal experts were called to the Rangueil Accident and Emergency unit in Toulouse after
medics discovered the eight-inch-long ordnance while performing surgery.
Where One Grits One's Teeth And Clutches One's Ankles.
The patient in question, a 24-year-old unidentified man, had come to the hospital in agony
over the weekend after having inserted the item into his backside, according to reports.
It’s unclear how the man sourced the munition or the circumstances surrounding its insertion,
but local reports claim he didn’t tell medical staff what the item was at the time when he was
admitted to the hospital.
Only during surgery did medics discover that the item he had inserted into his rectum was
actually an unexploded ordnance dating back to 1918. Although these munitions are almost
100 years old, the remnants of explosives used on the Western Front in WW1 can still have
deadly effects to this day.
The risk of it exploding also caused even more chaos at the hospital, prompting urgent calls to
bomb disposal teams. “It had not exploded, and so bomb disposal experts had to be called to
diffuse the shell, with the fire brigade standing by,” an insider told the Mail. It was later confirmed
that teams could safely remove the shell, and no further risk was found at the hospital.
However, the young man may now face legal action for potential violations of the country’s
legislation on weapons. A further investigation into the incident continues.
Unexploded munitions can be found in many places around the world, serving as remnants of
bygone conflicts. Often discovered during the ‘iron harvest’, it’s common for farmers tilling their
fields to dig up the remnants of old shells and bullets strewn across their land in places like
France.
Due to the unstable nature of these munitions, it’s common for bomb disposal teams to be
called in to safely remove the deadly UXOs. It’s not the first time that a munition of this nature
has found its way into the rear end of a person’s body. In 2022, another hospital in Southeast
France was partially evacuated after an 88-year-old patient came in with a similar issue...'
![[Image: RangueilHospital.jpeg?trim=114,0,114,0&q...width=1000]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2026/02/02/12/57/RangueilHospital.jpeg?trim=114,0,114,0&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1000)
It's only an island if you look at it from the water.