Ep 142 Leeches: It’s more powerful than magic, it’s nature

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Did our episode on maggots leave you wanting more squirmy wormy yet oh so cool content? You’re in luck. Because this week, we’re following up our maggots episode with a companion piece on leeches. Leeches have been used by healers and physicians for millennia, and they’ve come back into style for treatments today, for very good reason. If you’ve ever wondered what makes leech saliva so magical, why barber poles are striped with red and white ribbons, or how leeches behave as parents, then this is certainly the episode for you. And we are so excited to be joined by friend of the pod Dr. Robert Rowe, who shares a tale of leeches from the front lines of plastic surgery. Dr. Rowe MD, MBA, MPH is a Preventive Medicine Physician who serves as adjunct faculty with both the University of North Carolina Preventive Medicine Residency Program and the Gillings School of Global Public Health. He is also the creator and host of TarHeal Wellness, a podcast dedicated to the health and wellbeing of medical residents, touching on physical and mental challenges many other people face as well. For those who have friends or family who are doctors or training to be, it's a great way to hear about some of the challenges of residency and how they can work through and overcome them. Available wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:06.0	On the 12th season of Tinfoilmore Wicked,
0:09.0	we investigate a series of compelling mysteries from the city of Fall River, Massachusetts, where problems start of Join me as we cover the misfortunes that have befallen this infamous town for more than 150 years, including
0:27.2	the Great Fire of 1843.
0:29.7	Season 12 is out now on exactly right.
0:32.6	New episodes on Mondays.
0:34.2	Follow Tenfold More Wicked on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
0:38.1	or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:42.2	As a general surgery resident, you tend to expect the unexpected and very little surprises you.
0:47.0	But one morning during my plastic surgery rotation during my intern year stands out as a once in a lifetime experience.
0:53.4	A patient had come in overnight who while working with machinery
0:57.2	completely severed their thumb from their hand.
0:59.7	One of the microsurgeons was able to painstakingly reattach it, giving the patient a small but very real chance to keep their thumb.
1:08.0	Excited to meet the patient and see the aforementioned thumb.
1:11.0	I waited outside the room for the plastic surgery residents to join me for rounds.
1:15.7	Once they did, I noticed a small styrofoam cup in the chief residence hand, which I thought was
1:20.1	interesting considering we typically don't get coffee until after rounds.
1:24.8	He then asked me and the other residents if we were ready for this, as he showed us what was in
1:29.2	the cup.
1:30.2	Starkly contrasting the inside of the white cup were four dark undulating masses.
1:37.0	And then it all kind of clicked at once for me.
1:40.0	Reattached thumb, we need to restore blood flow, of course, these are leeches.
	...

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