Doctors took a look at man's painful shoulder—they found the joint was missing

A forty-five-year-old construction worker came to the emergency room with a severely swollen right shoulder that was becoming progressively more painful. When doctors looked at his X-rays, they found the shocking extent of the damage: his entire shoulder joint was destroyed. The ball-shaped head of his upper arm bone—which normally sits snugly in the shoulder blade's socket—was completely gone. His humerus, now detached and headless, floated freely in his arm. An MRI scan revealed even more damage: three of his four rotator cuff tendons had completely torn. Ars Technica reports on the case, documented in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton