Doctors in southern France thought they were in for a routine emergency shift this weekend. They were very, very wrong.
A 24-year-old man walked into Rangueil Hospital in Toulouse complaining of pain—but offering zero explanation. What followed sounds less like a medical case and more like a rejected plotline from Jackass: World War Edition.
After scans and emergency surgery, doctors discovered the cause of his distress: a World War I–era artillery shell, measuring roughly 16 by 4 centimeters, lodged in his rectum. Yes. A real one. From 1918.
Suddenly, this wasn’t just a medical emergency—it was a full-blown bomb scare.
Hospital staff immediately cleared the area and called in law enforcement, firefighters, and explosive disposal experts. Within minutes, the hospital was crawling with emergency crews as specialists worked to determine whether the century-old shell was still live.
Firefighters later confirmed to Le Parisien that the shell was successfully defused and posed no further danger. The hospital—and everyone in it—narrowly avoided becoming ground zero for the most awkward explosion in modern French history.
The patient, meanwhile, is still recovering from surgery and could face criminal charges under France’s strict weapons laws. Doctors have not commented on how—or why—the shell ended up there in the first place.
As horrifying as the situation sounds, medical professionals say this case joins a long—and deeply unfortunate—list of foreign-object emergencies.
In one infamous incident, a 45-year-old man in India endured 10 days with a metal cup stuck in his rectum after a drunken party prank. Too embarrassed to seek help, he waited until his condition became life-threatening—by which point attempts to remove it had only made things worse.
Then there was the Houston antique shop scandal, where a 60-year-old man wearing a kilt was caught inserting vintage items—including a makeup brush and antique bottle opener—into himself before carefully returning them to store shelves. Yes, that happened.
World War I shells are still occasionally uncovered across parts of Europe, especially in France, where millions of unexploded munitions remain buried from battles like Verdun. Explosive experts expect to be clearing them for centuries.
What they do not expect, however, is to retrieve one from a human body.
Doctors involved in the Toulouse case reportedly described it as one of the most shocking emergencies they’ve ever seen. And while the shell has been safely neutralized, the story has already detonated online—earning equal parts disbelief, horror, and dark humor.
One takeaway is painfully clear: Some historical artifacts are better left untouched.
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