[A photo of the man holding the part of his skull that fell off shows that 
he lost the entire top of his skull down to about 2 inches above his ears. 
Very weird.]

Piece of man's skull falls off, draws crowds

Wed Jul 5, 2006 8:33 AM ET

By Bappa Majumdar
Reuters

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-07-05T123312Z_01_DEL109974_RTRUKOC_0_US-INDIA-SKULL1.xml


KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of people are thronging a hospital in 
the eastern Indian city of Kolkata to see a patient holding a piece of his 
own skull that fell off.

Doctors say a large, dead section of 25-year-old electrician Sambhu Roy's 
skull came away Sunday after severe burns starved it of blood.

"When he came to us late last year, his scalp was completely burned and 
within months it came off exposing the skull," Ratan Lal Bandyopadhyay, the 
surgeon who treated Roy told Reuters Wednesday.

"Later, we noticed that the part of his skull was loosening due to lack of 
blood supply to the affected area, which can happen in such extensive burn 
cases."

The piece came off Sunday and hundreds of people and dozens of doctors now 
crowd around his bed, where he lies holding the bone.

Bandyopadhyay said the skull's inner covering and the membrane which helps 
produce bone was miraculously unaffected, allowing fresh bone to grow.

"When the skull came off, I thought he will die, but we noticed a new 
covering on his head forming and that might have pushed the 'dead skull' 
out," he said.

While possible, such cases are extremely rare.

Roy was injured and almost killed when he was electrocuted while repairing 
a high voltage wire last October.

"Doctors say a new skull covering has replaced the old one, but I am not 
letting go of this one," he told Reuters.

He intends to keep his prized possession for life and not hand it over to 
the hospital when he leaves: "My skull has made me famous," he says.


================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923  Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu



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