We often assume that those who lived before us were inferior in intelligence and accomplishments, especially when we think of ancient medicine. But modern archaeologists are discovering surprising things about antiquated health care. In some cases, it’s as bad as we imagined. In others, the philosophies and methods of health care are strikingly sophisticated for earlier times.

10Egyptians Had The First Governmental Health Care System

At least in terms of health care, ancient Egypt was quite similar to modern developed countries. In Deir el-Medina, an ancient village in the mountains above the Valley of the Kings, written records and physical remains reveal evidence of the first documented governmental health care system.

Under harsh conditions, artisans with unusual literacy and advanced engineering knowledge built the pharaohs’ royal tombs from 1292–1077 B.C. This was about the time of Ramses II and his heirs. The workers left thousands of documents, including everything from letters to lawsuits.

The site was first excavated in the early to mid-1900s, but the bodies in the tombs were left largely untouched because osteology, the study of skeletons, was stuck in its early stages. In 2012, archaeologists returned to study the human remains in greater detail. Their findings confirmed the written records. The workers at Deir el-Medina were entitled to take paid sick days or get free checkups at the Egyptian equivalent of a clinic. However, like so many modern employees, these ancient workers with comprehensive care plans often felt pressured to continue working even while sick. In one mummy, the man had obviously worked while battling osteomyelitis, a blood-borne infection that inflames bone.

The skeletons show the stress of climbing from the Valley of the Kings to the mountain village. But they also reveal that residents with severe disabilities received excellent care. For example, one young man of about 20 years old had a bad right leg from a neurological disease such as polio. But he showed no physical signs associated with climbing to work in the tombs, which suggests that he received a less strenuous role in this society.

Families and friends were also expected to care for the old and the sick. If not, the errant individuals would be shamed publicly through divorce or disinheritance. “A woman named Naunakhte had eight children,” said lead researcher Anne Austin. “In her will, she chastised and disinherited four of them for neglecting her in her old age.”

9Ancient Peru Had The First Limb Surgery

Ancient medical practitioners used a technique called trepanation, which opens a hole in the skull of a living person by drilling, surgical scraping, or sawing. It treated cases of head trauma as well as some other ailments.

In 2004, anthropologists from the University of Central Florida found that shamans in the Chachapoya region of ancient Peru also used trepanation techniques on patients’ lower legs at the fortress of Kuelap. This is the first documented evidence of trepanation used on another part of the body.

The Chachapoya area was inhabited from approximately 800–1535. Their shamans were quite advanced, successfully performing complex surgeries like amputations that clearly healed. As for trepanation on legs, the remains of two otherwise healthy men in this region showed holes drilled in their lower leg bones, probably to relieve fluid buildup from infected injuries. Although unlikely, it’s also possible that bone was removed from these men while they were alive to create amulets or pendants.

The first man was an adult around 30–34 years old. A medical practitioner had drilled a series of holes in his tibia or shinbone, the larger of two human leg bones that connect the knee to the ankle. The holes extend to the center of the tibia, but there’s no evidence of healing. That means the man probably died when the surgery took place. The second male, a teenager, showed two holes drilled into the middle of his shinbone. He appears to have met the same fate as the first man.

Although it looks like both men died during the surgery, it’s also possible that these procedures were done after the men died. A novice may have been practicing his technique on corpses.

8Ancient Doctors Also Treated PTSD

We now have evidence of ancient soldiers in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as early as 1300 B.C. Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University found medical texts about doctors trying to diagnose and treat warriors from the Assyrian Dynasty who experienced sleep disturbances, flashbacks, and depression, accounts eerily similar to those from modern combat veterans.

“[The ancient warriors] described hearing and seeing ghosts talking to them, who would be the ghosts of people they’d killed in battle—and that’s exactly the experience of modern-day soldiers who’ve been involved in close hand-to-hand combat,” said researcher Jamie Hacker Hughes, director of Anglia Ruskin’s Veterans and Families Institute. He noted that the Mesopotamian warriors fought their battles in the same geographic areas as the most recent Gulf and Iraq Wars.

During the Assyrian Dynasty, men were required to fight every three years as part of their mandatory national service. They faced injury and death from different weapons back then, such as swords, slingstones, and arrows. However, the same stressors—watching their comrades die, fearing death, and more—caused the symptoms of PTSD for them. They also faced a greater possibility of death from injuries because modern surgical techniques were not available to help them.

In ancient times, it was believed that the ghosts or demons of slain enemies caused PTSD symptoms, attacking some of the soldiers left behind and causing a “wandering mind” as punishment from their gods for these soldiers’ sins. Treatments could take the form of medications as well as religious offerings or recitations to chase off the ghosts.

7Ancient Medicine Chest Holds 2,000-Year-Old Eye Pills

Usually, our knowledge of ancient medicine comes from texts recovered at archaeological sites. But these writings may lack the details and accuracy needed for us to fully understand how ancient medicine worked. That’s why archaeologists became so excited by the discovery of the contents of a medicine chest from a Roman shipwreck near Tuscany around 120 B.C.

Archaeologists believe the vessel, named Relitto del Pozzino, sank during a bad storm near the ancient Etruscan city of Populonia, a key shipping port on the Mediterranean Sea at that time. In recent years, excavators have recovered lamps, glass cups, and other artifacts. But the most interesting discovery was the medical equipment of a Roman doctor who may have been aboard the ship.

Although his medicine chest appeared to be destroyed, a mortar, surgery hook, and bleeding cup survived. Archaeologists also found 136 wooden drug vials and several pyxides, sealed tin containers with 2,000-year-old medicinal tablets in them. Amazingly, the circular, green tablets were completely dry, and modern technology has now identified their ingredients.

“In archaeology, the discovery of ancient medicines is very rare, as is knowledge of their chemical composition,” said researchers in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The data revealed extraordinary information on the composition of the tablets and on their possible therapeutic use.”

The pills contained beeswax, starch, iron oxide, several zinc compounds, pine resin, and other animal and plant-derived materials. Based on the ingredients and shape of the pills, researchers believe they were used as an eyewash or a type of eye medicine in ancient times.

6Ancient Rich People Had A Disease Of Modern Poor People

Considered the “first family” in Italy during the Renaissance, the Medicis were the affluent rulers of Tuscany. But money didn’t save their young children from developing rickets, a disease most often linked to poverty in the modern world, especially in polluted, urban areas where residents don’t get much exposure to sunlight. Ironically, the Medicis’ wealth was probably a major factor in their children developing this serious illness.

Rickets is caused by a vitamin D deficiency that softens the bones in children, resulting in bowed legs from trying to walk on weakened bones. Arm bones can also become curved, especially if the child tries to crawl. In the 16th century, six of the nine Medici children who were studied definitely suffered from rickets. Five-year-old Filippo even had a skull deformity from the disease.

With their wealth, it would seem likely that the Medicis could afford the foods, such as cheese and eggs, that would provide vitamin D for their children. So researchers were initially baffled by these findings.

However, an analysis of the children’s bone collagen showed that they weren’t weaned until two years old. Breast milk doesn’t have much vitamin D in it. Back then, the only supplements to breast milk were cereals made of soft bread, which have little vitamin D, and apples, which have none at all. Two of the family’s newborns also had rickets, signifying that their mothers probably had vitamin D deficiencies, too. The researchers believe that the mothers may have developed deficiencies from frequent childbearing or wearing heavy makeup that blocked the Sun.

As for the children, their high social standing probably had the most to do with getting rickets. In those days, poor children ran around outside a lot, so upper-class parents didn’t want their kids to get tans or they might look like the lower class. Instead, upper-class children tended to stay in their grand houses, swathed in many layers of clothes and protected from the sunlight that could have prevented this disease.

5The Ancients Knew About Donkey Milk Before We Did

In recent years, donkey milk has been touted as a healthy alternative for children allergic to specific proteins in cow’s milk. For many children, allergies are also a problem with traditional alternatives such as soy, goat’s, sheep’s, and even formulated milk. Donkey milk is more like human milk.

Although clinical studies need to be done, some sufferers of psoriasis, eczema, and asthma have also experienced surprisingly good results from drinking donkey milk or using soap derived from it. Even Pope Francis has revealed that he received donkey milk as a baby.

But the benefits of donkey milk are simply a rediscovery of what our ancestors already knew. Hippocrates, “the father of medicine,” prescribed donkey milk for many conditions from nosebleeds to snake bites. Supposedly, Cleopatra bathed in it for cosmetic purposes. The ancient Greeks fed it to their kids, while the ancient Romans used it to soften their skin.

However, at least one problem needs to be overcome. Donkey milk is much harder to produce than cow’s milk. While a cow has four teats that can produce about 10 liters (2.5 gal) of milk per day, a donkey only has two teats that produce about 1 liter (0.25 gal) per day. In addition, a donkey only gives milk for approximately six months after having a foal and only if the foal is nearby.

4Ancient Medical Texts Written On Bamboo Strips

On a construction site in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in China, workers discovered 920 bamboo strips that served as medical texts for the treatment of people and horses approximately 2,000 years ago. These ancient texts belong to the school of Bian Que, a medical pioneer who focused on diagnosing disease by taking a patient’s pulse and doing a physical examination. At that time, bamboo strips were often used for written texts.

In China, Bian Que is a legendary physician who is credited with using anesthesia and performing the world’s first organ transplant. The 920 bamboo strips include 184 strips of veterinary medicine for horses and 736 strips divided into nine different medical books for humans. In addition to pulse-taking, some of the books discuss surgery, dermatology, internal medicine, ophthalmology, traumatology, and gynecology. Some of the treatments include taking bull’s urine for jaundice and chilies for headaches.

A figurine approximately 14 centimeters (5.5 in) in length was also recovered from the site. This figurine has major acupuncture points marked on it and may give us some clues to how acupuncture evolved as a treatment option.

3The Baghdad Battery May Have Been An Analgesic

About 75 years ago, German archaeologist Wilhelm Konig, director of the Baghdad Museum, announced the discovery of the 2,000-year-old Baghdad battery. These batteries were small terra-cotta jars with copper cylinders and iron rods inside. Konig believed these batteries may have been used to electroplate gold onto silver items. When linked together, they could produce as much as 4 volts of electricity. These batteries were conservatively dated from 250 B.C. to A.D. 640.

However, as we’ve discussed before, these artifacts were out of place. It simply didn’t make sense that they would exist at the historical time and place in which they were discovered. For many people, Konig’s explanation was unsatisfactory, so the battery’s purpose remained a mystery.

Enter Paul T. Keyser, a researcher from the University of Alberta who proposed a medical theory in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies in 1993. He believed that the Baghdad battery may have been a medical device used to alleviate pain, much like the ancient Greeks numbed an inflamed foot by standing on an electric eel until the pain went away. Keyser thought it possible that these devices were used in places like Mesopotamia where there were no electric fish. Bronze and iron needles may have been used to conduct electricity from the batteries in a type of electro-acupuncture, similar to a Chinese treatment used at that time.

2Blackbeard Made Health Care A Priority

In 1717, the notorious pirate Blackbeard easily captured his flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, from the original French crew because they were mostly sick or dead from illness. However, Blackbeard controlled the ship for less than a year. In early 1718, the vessel got stuck on a sandbar in North Carolina. Taking some of his best men and almost all of his stolen goods, Blackbeard abandoned the ship and most of his crew. But he was later killed by the Royal Navy in November 1718.

Blackbeard was healthy enough to fight hard, as he tried to board an enemy ship during that final skirmish. “He stood his ground and fought with great fury, till he received five and 20 wounds, and five of them by shot,” wrote Captain Charles Johnson about Blackbeard in 1724. “At length, as he was cocking another pistol, having fired several before, he fell down dead.”

The Queen Anne’s Revenge was found in 1996, and archaeologists have been excavating the wrecked ship ever since. Recently, they made some surprising discoveries public. According to historical records and newly discovered artifacts, it seems that Blackbeard made a great effort to keep his crew healthy. Many things could happen at sea, such as wounds, diseases, burns, toothaches, and amputations. To Blackbeard, health care was such a priority that he forced three surgeons from the former French crew of the Queen Anne’s Revenge to stay onboard the captured ship. The excavation has shown that Blackbeard probably confiscated medical equipment from the captured ship as well.

The archaeologists found a urethral syringe used to treat syphilis with mercury. However, if the syphilis didn’t kill the sailors, mercury poisoning would. Scientists also found two enemas that would have pumped fluid into the rectum, although they weren’t sure why these mechanisms were used or what they contained so long ago. Equipment for bloodletting, medicine preparation, and surgery was also discovered, along with galley pots for storage of potions, salves, and balms.

1Siberia Was A Sophisticated Surgery Center

Archaeologists were astounded to discover that the ancient nomads of Siberia created a major skull surgery center about 2,300–2,500 years ago. Examining three skulls (two men, one woman) from the Altai Mountains, a team of modern neurosurgeons, archaeologists, and anthropologists found that the ancient Siberian surgeons expertly wielded one primitive tool to scrape the skull with sophisticated techniques. They also appeared to adhere to the Hippocratic Corpus, a set of medical texts devised in Greece between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C.

One of the male patients had a blood clot from head trauma that probably caused nausea, headaches, and other symptoms. It’s believed that trepanation was used to remove the clot. However, the biggest surprise is that the skull shows bone growth after the surgery, meaning the man lived for many years afterward.

The second male didn’t show evidence of head trauma, so it’s believed that the surgeon was trying to fix a congenital skull deformity. With both of these men, the surgeons made a small hole where they could get to the brain with minimal damage to the membrane and joints.

The woman showed trauma from a fall, but didn’t appear to survive her surgery. Her doctor made several mistakes. So even in ancient times, the choice of surgeon was critical.

The actual scraping tool wasn’t found at the site, but archaeologists suspect it was a bronze knife. It’s possible that early Siberians were incredibly skilled with skull surgeries because they did a lot of work with cutting animal bones.

“Honestly, I am amazed,” said Novosibirsk neurosurgeon Aleksei Krivoshapkin, who examined the skulls. “We suspect now that in the time of Hippocrates, Altai people could do a very fine diagnosis and carry out skillful trepanations and fantastic brain surgery.”

It’s a question that has haunted the thoughts of countless hospital patients: Can I trust the professional who currently holds my life in his hands? In most cases, the answer is “yes.” But there are cases of wanton negligence and predatory opportunism by health care providers that could give even the most trusting patient a case of the health care heebie-jeebies.

10 A Doctor Encourages A Patient To Commit Suicide

Dr. Arun Singhal was a general physician at a hospital in Liverpool, England. In May 2011, he consulted on a case of a distraught woman who was on antidepressants. The woman, referred to as “Patient A,” was a witness for the prosecution in a rape case. After discovering that she lived close to the rape suspect’s brother, Patient A called Singhal for a sick note to absolve her from taking the stand. Terrified, she also admitted to being on the verge of suicide and said that her antidepressants weren’t working.

Singhal’s response to Patient A was more becoming of a sadistic Internet troll than a licensed lifesaver. He chided her as a “disgrace” of a patient and told the woman to “jolly well kill herself.” He even suggested that she consult the Internet for useful suicide tips. But as Singhal dispensed his decidedly unprofessional advice, he had no clue that Patient A was recording their conversation. Understandably upset, she filed a complaint.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service looked into the matter and concluded that Singhal had likely taken Patient A’s claims too lightly and had behaved inexcusably. The doctor was subsequently suspended for three months. Considering the tragedy which might have happened if Patient A had followed the doctor’s orders, Singhal is lucky that he wasn’t fired.

9 A Vengeful Ex–Hospital Employee Sends Patients Fake Lobotomy Letters

From 2005 to 2010, Michelle Morrison of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, served as the senior account representative for Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital before being laid off. Feeling embittered and vengeful, she lashed out by stealing hospital stationery and the private information of more than 30 patients as part of a heartless plot to embarrass her former bosses.

From February 2011 to June 2012, Morrison sent six fraudulent letters to three Alexian Brothers patients claiming that their psychological treatments had failed and they would need to undergo frontal lobotomies. The letters also contained crude, debasing remarks and threats to reveal the patients’ medical information to their friends, family, and coworkers.

A two-month investigation uncovered Morrison as the culprit. Caught with patient files and other hospital materials in her home, she had little recourse but to plead guilty. Outwardly repentant, Morrison apologized in court for what was her first criminal offense on record. As punishment, she was placed on 30 months’ probation.

8 Nursing Home Employees Play Cruel Jokes On Dementia Patients

In 2010, at the Valley View Skilled Nursing Facility in Ukiah, California, six employees decided that it would be hilarious to cover seven defenseless dementia patients from head to toe with ointment to create a slippery challenge for the next shift of employees. But rather than having a hearty belly laugh, these cruel employees, aged 23 to 51 years old, were arrested.

Unfortunately, the Ukiah sextet are not the only perpetrators of cruel nursing home misconduct. In May 2012, an employee was dismissed from the UK-based Kirknowe Care Home after feeding a dog treat to a dementia patient as a joke. Nursing home employee Tracie Nellis also displayed sadistic behavior. In 2013, she deposited hot sauce into the mouths of two sleeping dementia patients, a misdeed for which she voluntarily relinquished her nursing license.

The list of similar and far graver offenses seems endless. All of them tell the too-common story of health care workers who take advantage of vulnerable patients.

7 A Doctor Slaps The Butts Of Sedated Patients

For at least a year, Dr. Michael T. Clarke, a physician at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, New York, delighted in hearing the sharp thwack of his palm against the butt cheeks of his unconscious patients in the operating room. He would later try to pass off this behavior as a way to gauge the effectiveness of spinal anesthetics. But coworkers present in the operating room painted a different picture.

According to them, the slaphappy doctor spewed sexually explicit insults while striking his patients, sometimes using enough force to leave lasting red handprints. Allegedly, he also hurled raunchy comments at hospital staff. After months of remaining tight-lipped about Dr. Clarke’s shocking bedside manner, members of the OR staff finally alerted hospital administrators in December 2013.

A state health department investigation corroborated complaints against Clarke. He was suspended in February 2014 and required to take undisclosed steps to qualify for reinstatement. After eight months, he was back in the operating room at St. Joseph’s.

6 A Surgeon Sends Sexts Mid-Operation

A medical practitioner for 20 years, anesthesiologist Arthur K. Zilberstein was based at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, when he committed his infractions. Across a variety of procedures—everything from caesarian sections to pediatric appendectomies—the doctor took the time to send nearly 250 sexually suggestive text messages and explicit photos to his girlfriend and sometimes his own patients.

In one instance, he sent a patient a selfie that showed him in hospital attire with his genitals dangling in plain view. During a stomach surgery, he sent 45 lusty texts in under 90 minutes.

Dr. Zilberstein has also been implicated in reviewing patients’ medical records for his own carnal pleasure, engaging in hospital romps, and doling out unauthorized prescriptions. Whether his indulgences ever injured anyone is unclear, but state officials felt that Zilberstein’s indiscretions warranted the suspension of his medical license. At that time, Swedish Medical Center also suspended the doctor’s privileges.

5 An Anesthetist Punches His Patient After Heart Surgery

Dr. Andrei Votyakov, an anesthetist at Russia’s Federal Center for Cardiovascular Surgery in Perm, had slogged through a 36-hour shift and reached the edge of his patience. According to Votyakov, it was in this compromised state that he encountered a recent heart surgery patient, who was wearing an oxygen mask and had both of his arms and legs strapped to the bed.

The 61-year-old patient allegedly insulted Votyakov and displayed zero appreciation for his work. At that point, the doctor jettisoned what little composure he had left and punched the man in the face before pounding on his fragile chest above the heart. The patient later died a week later.

Video footage of the interaction dated February 21, 2013, shows what looks like an argument between Votyakov and the patient before the doctor resorts to violence. The interaction was later posted online, which incensed the public and led to an official investigation. Votyakov apologized for his appalling display of malice but denied causing the patient’s death. The results of a criminal investigation into his behavior apparently supported his claim because the physician was reportedly fined 100,000 rubles and only sentenced to five months of community service.

4 A Nurse Steals From Sleeping Cancer Patients

In January 2015, officials at Morriston Hospital in Wales set out to catch a crook. Someone had been robbing patients since at least the previous November, and the staff believed one of their own was responsible. With the help of local law enforcement, they devised a trap: A marked £20 note was positioned under a plant pot as bait. Much to everyone’s relief, it worked. Much to their chagrin, the culprit was indeed a hospital employee, one who had exploited some of Morriston’s sickest patients.

That employee was 49-year-old nurse Jacqueline Perry, and she worked in Morriston’s cancer ward. Apparently, she waited for cancer patients to fall asleep before rifling through their things for valuables she could sell to fund her husband’s cider habit. The quality and quantity of her heists varied greatly. Perry stole painkillers, cash, and jewelry. In one instance, she lifted £14 from a cancer patient. Another patient, 89-year-old Nancy Thomas, was stripped of treasured family heirlooms—three rings valued at a combined £1,800—before she died. Perry sold those rings for about 10 percent of their value.

In total, Perry bagged £2,739 worth of personal belongings before she was nabbed in the hospital’s sting operation. According to the nurse, her capture was a relief from the guilt that had racked her conscience. For her crimes, Perry received a 16-month jail sentence. Unfortunately, some of her victims didn’t live long enough to see justice done.

3 A Doctor Secretly Records Patients’ Pelvic Exams

Gynecologist and obstetrician Dr. Nikita A. Levy worked at Baltimore’s renowned Johns Hopkins Community Medicine for 25 years. For at least eight of those years, he secretly wore a camera pen to clandestinely film the gynecological exams of his unsuspecting patients. Johns Hopkins learned of his behavior when a female colleague reported her suspicions about his pen in 2013.

The hospital brought in law enforcement, which found over 1,200 videos and pictures dating back to at least 2005. But during the 25 years that Levy had worked at the community clinic, he had seen a staggering 12,692 women who were deemed potential victims. The hospital had no choice but to inform all of them of the deep privacy violation.

Authorities found no tangible evidence that Levy recorded the women’s exams for anything more than private use, but that was traumatic enough for his victims. Some reported refusing to see doctors or take their children to doctors upon being informed of Levy’s abuses. A class action lawsuit was filed, and Johns Hopkins agreed to pay $190 million to over 7,000 of Levy’s former patients in compensation. Levy’s fate was far darker. Ten days after being outed for his crimes, he penned a letter of apology to his wife and killed himself with helium and a plastic bag.

2 A Drunken Anesthetist Accidentally Kills A New Mother

On September 26, 2014, Belgian-born Helga Wauters reported for duty at a private French clinic where she had been employed for two weeks. Although new to the facility, she’d been an anesthetist since 1994. No one would have been blamed for thinking that 28-year-old Xynthia Hawke was in good hands when she went into labor, and Wauters was tasked with supplying pain medication. Instead, Wauters tragically killed Hawke in a bout of drunken incompetence.

After Wauters gave Hawke an epidural, the anesthetist stepped out for a drink with friends. But labor difficulties made a caesarean necessary. The anesthetist now had to guide a tube into Hawke’s trachea in order to administer additional medication. But when Wauters returned to the clinic, she reeked of alcohol and, according to her colleagues, seemed off-kilter. Nonetheless, she was allowed to work. Wauters mistakenly placed the ventilation tube in Hawke’s esophagus, causing a heart attack. Hawke died four days later. Fortunately, her child survived.

As it turned out, Wauters had a serious drinking problem, a point punctuated by 17 empty vodka bottles that authorities found lying around her home. She admitted to drinking “a glass of rose” after giving Hawke the epidural as well as imbibing water-vodka mix the night of the procedure. The anesthetist also unconvincingly tried to excuse her drinking by claiming that alcohol diminished her faculties by 30 percent but helped to steady her hands. Tests by law enforcement showed that Wauters had almost five times the legal limit of alcohol in her system on the day after her fatal drunken bungle.

When Wauters was arrested, she was initially denied bail. But the court eventually relented, ordering Wauters to pay 50,000 euros in bail and forbidding her to leave France or practice medicine. She also had to enter a rehabilitation program.

1 Doctors Who Ditch Patients Mid-Surgery

At Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, California, cardiac surgeon Dr. Pervaiz Chaudhry performed almost 350 bypass surgeries between 2009 and 2010, placing him among the top five heart surgeons in California based on total number of surgeries. But his heavy workload seemingly came at a huge cost: Chaudhry had a below-average patient survival rate for his state. Of course, that depressing statistic might also be the result of Chaudhry’s alleged inclination to abandon patients during operations.

A number of lawsuits accuse Chaudry of ducking out of the operating room without completing heart surgeries. In one incident, his hospital was fined $75,000 after he left a physician’s assistant to close up a patient’s chest while he attended a luncheon. The patient, 72-year-old Silvino Perez, suffered a myocardial infarction, and the resulting physical trauma left him in a persistent vegetative state. Chaudhry has denied these and other charges levied against him, but an investigation by California’s State Department of Health found that the heart doctor had recklessly endangered Perez. The outcomes of other claims are currently unknown.

Chaudhry’s not the only professional to sacrifice a patient at the altar of good eats. In 2012, an anesthesiologist and a nurse anesthetist at a Swedish hospital inadvertently killed a man with a lunch break. They were supposed to be removing a tumor from a 72-year-old man, but as soon as lunchtime hit, the doctor shoved off for chow. Fifteen minutes later, the head nurse anesthetist also succumbed to hunger and left.

A nurse from the orthopedic ward was asked to sub for the doctor-nurse duo. Unfortunately, she lacked the vital expertise to realize that the patient’s respirator was turned off and to respond when he suddenly started hemorrhaging. By the time the lunching doctor and nurse returned, their patient had been starved of oxygen for eight minutes. He later died of brain damage.

There seems to be little privacy in the modern world. Modern technologies gather information about us, and we have little control over what happens to this data. We all use the internet, and every time we do, we add to the stock of information available to businesses and the authorities. Most of us accept this as a price we pay for being connected. But it also illustrates that we don’t value privacy as we once did.

We are creatures of habit, and our habits ground us in the world and make our environment more familiar and comfortable. Most of our practices are harmless and have no impact on others. But we have developed some new habits, and old ones have adapted to help us navigate the new age of technological wonders.

The habits we will discuss here are common enough, but if we stop to think about them, they are a little odd. Some of these habits show that privacy is no longer one of our primary concerns. Does it matter? I’ll leave you to decide.

Related: Top 10 Bizarre Ways To Make Money From Disgusting Habits

10 Who Cares?

You’re sitting in a restaurant having a quiet conversation with your partner when a phone rings at the next table. You are then forced to listen to one side of a conversation (sometimes both sides if the speaker is on). Irritated but simultaneously fascinated, you discover that A really hates B, that C is an idiot who doesn’t know what he is doing, and that C is seeing D on the side. You don’t know these people and never will, but you now know more about them than you ever wanted to.

Some people don’t seem to realize that there are boundaries between the private and public worlds. And is it just your imagination, or is the phone conversation louder than it should be? No, it’s not your imagination.

In 1909, a French doctor called Étienne Lombard discovered that people talk at a volume that matches the noise level around them. We often think there is more noise than there actually is and talk more loudly than necessary—especially on the phone.

9 Bull’s Pizzle

We can’t all be as inventive as Shakespeare when it comes to swearing, but most of us have a few choice words that we only roll out on special occasions. We usually know when and where swearing is appropriate—few people would swear in church, but many might when watching a football game with friends.

If used sparingly, swearing is a safety valve that makes your feelings very clear and very public. Some people swear too much and season every conversation with colorful words. This makes swearing counter-productive as well as tedious.

Studies have shown that swearing helps to reduce stress, builds bonds among peers, and is often a sign of fluency, intelligence, and honesty. Naturally, you have to use swear words sparingly and save them for the right moment. In other words, swearing as a habit just makes a public spectacle of the swearer. Shakespeare was the master of the right word at the right time.

8 Where Did I Put It?

My wife refers to my office as “the black hole” because my desk is heaped with papers, stationery, and books. This untidiness in an open office means that your work (and yesterday’s lunch) is in public view. You should never leave confidential stuff lying around for anyone to see—nor yesterday’s lunch, for that matter. While leaving private information, lying is always bad form, and in some cases, it’s illegal. HIPPA and FERPA laws protect patients’ and students’ information, for example.

An untidy desk may show you are creative and too busy to tidy up. On the other hand (which is true in my case), it may simply show that you are lazy. Whatever the reason, it is a very public demonstration of your personality.

People who keep their desks tidy might be more organized if not as creative as their messy colleagues—there is room for both types of people in an organization.

7 What Did I Say?

Most people—96%, according to some studies—have conversations with themselves. But these chats go on in the head. Some 25% of people talk to themselves out loud regularly. This habit can help you work through problems and hear how a phrase might sound. A lot of people will mutter the opening words of an email to themselves before they start clattering away on the keyboard.

When you think about it, it’s a strange habit indeed. Why should talking aloud to yourself clarify things better than just thinking about them? But it seems to work for many of us.

There’s a big difference between rehearsing the first line of an email out loud and constantly talking to yourself disjointedly about anything and everything. The second might indicate a mental health issue, although nowadays, with mobile phones and Bluetooth hearing devices, it’s difficult to be sure.

6 This Is My Lunch

Open your Facebook page, and I am sure that you will find that one of your contacts has posted a photo of some trivial aspect of their life that few, if any people, will have any interest in at all. Do you really want to know what Tom had for lunch?

According to a report in The New York Times, 94% of people post on social media because they want to inform, amuse, and help others. That’s all well and good, but some people take the habit to extremes and post the most trivial rubbish. Others share posts and photos they may regret one day—and the internet never forgets.

Social media platforms have become an important part of our lives in a very short period. That people enjoy using them and find them useful is certainly true. Unfortunately, they have their dark side, and young people can be especially vulnerable to abuse.

We need to educate our young people about appropriate use and the need for caution when using these platforms. This includes parents who post content such as a back-to-school picture with their kid in front of a school sign. A quick Google search will show any creep where your child now attends school. Not cool.

5 Text Me

Next time you are in a restaurant, look beyond the guy talking too loudly on his phone, and you will see a group of people all staring at their screens. Chances are that some of them will be texting their friends.

Why? Are the people at their table too boring to talk to? Why do we need to know exactly what our friends are doing at all times?

And why don’t people send all the information in one text? Why do they message us sentence by sentence? This is not a face-to-face conversation, with texting you answer the first point and then discover that it’s irrelevant because the sender contradicts the first:

A: Is there a meeting on Monday?

B: Yes, there is.

A: Or Tuesday?

B: Monday afternoon.

A: Because I can’t go on Monday.

A: morning.

4 Gossip

We’re social creatures, and connection with others is very important. Most of us can’t resist a good piece of gossip. It’s a social lubricant that is usually harmless enough. However, we should always be aware that gossip implies that an aspect of another person’s life is now in the public sphere.

The problem with gossip is that it is rarely based on complete information, and as it spreads, it becomes more fanciful until, like Chinese whispers, it bears little relationship with the facts.

We should be mindful of what we say and the damage that gossip can cause.

3 Smoking

Smoking, many people will tell you, is a filthy habit. Over recent years, smokers have found that they are not welcome in public places. This should have the effect of driving smoking underground to become a private vice. But this isn’t what happens.

Smoking is addictive; some say it’s easier to quit taking heroin than to give up smoking. A heavy smoker can’t go through an entire workday without a cigarette, so smokers leave the workplace and walk to the nearest place where they can indulge their habit. Here, in all weather, smokers gather in groups exposed to the disapproving eyes of the public.

Smokers reinforce each other’s addiction and form an “us versus them” mentality. Meanwhile, they’re not getting any work done.

Interestingly, psychologists have discovered that putting horrible photos on packs of cigarettes often has the opposite effect to that intended. After a short while, a dedicated smoker associates the photo with cigarettes, and this serves to reinforce the habit.

2 Keep Going

Some people have the habit of persistence. This can take various forms, from the irritating person who won’t stop going on about the same tired subject to the person who keeps trying until they get something right. This habit can keep someone in a job they hate for years or drive a scientist to keep trying until they reach the desired result.

Strangely, many people will simply keep going and never give up. It can be very admirable in many ways, but sometimes it can be very irritating. Regardless, the person will seek out others to share their woes or triumphs with in great detail—ones we really don’t want to know or have any business knowing. The trick is to know when to stop.

1 Me, Myself, I

In search of a perfect selfie to post on Facebook, Anna, an 18-year-old Romanian, lay on top of a train car. She stretched out a leg to get the ideal pose but touched an overhead wire. She burst into flames as 27,000 volts coursed through her body. She didn’t live to see her photo posted.

Selfies are everywhere. Fortunately, not many are as deadly as Anna’s, but most are intensely irritating and very public. Why do people think others are so interested in their badly-centered, unfocused portraits?

Taking selfies is a narcissistic habit that only feeds our desire to be the center of attention. It also reveals a lot about our lives and where we are at any given time. Planning a vacation? Hold on to those selfies to post when you return. Or you might just return to an empty house.