This Scientist Figured Out Why Your Appendix Isn't Useless

Short Wave

NPR

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🗓️ 2 February 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Back in the day, many of us heard that the appendix is a vestigial organ — at best, a body part that lost its purpose all those many years ago. At worst, an unnecessary clinger-on to the human body that, when ruptured, could be life threatening. But what if that narrative is wrong?

Heather Smith became obsessed with the appendix after hers was removed at age 12. After years of anatomy research, she's found that the appendix is not, in fact, useless. Reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin is in the host chair today to get the scoop on all things appendix.

Think it's time to give another part of the human body its due? Email us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear about it!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions.
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0:17.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:22.0	Hey shortwaivers, I'm Selina Simmons Duffin in the host chair today.
0:26.0	Let's travel back in time to the early 90s.
0:38.0	It's springtime in Phoenix, Arizona, and 12-year-old Heather Smith is in good spirits. It's the first day of her spring break, and even though it's been hot, like 80 degrees everyday hot, her family is going on vacation,
0:46.6	and there's going to be snow.
0:48.5	It's the Sonoran Desert, so going on a skiing trip is really exciting.
0:52.8	That's their plan, but before Heather and her family have even packed their snow pants,
0:57.8	she realizes...
0:58.8	She doesn't feel good.
1:01.1	I woke up feeling just a little bit nauseous and I wasn't sure why and then throughout
1:07.6	the course of the day I started to feel worse and worse.
1:11.2	Her abdomen started to hurt.
1:13.0	Her dad, a physicist, put together that she might have appendicitis.
1:17.0	So he took me to urgent care who sent me to the emergency room
1:21.0	and by about 10 o'clock that same night I had already
1:25.1	entered surgery to have my appendix out. I was in the hospital for several days. I
1:31.9	still have a small scar on my abdomen. The ski trip never
1:36.2	happened. The family hung out at home in Phoenix instead and afterward Heather
1:40.6	found herself kind of obsessed with the appendix.
1:44.3	Why do we have this weird little organ in the first place?
	...

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