Med students have to learn about a vast amount of drugs in medical school and are expected to know about them. You might be surprised how many medicines were actually derived from nature. Many know that aspirin is derived from willow bark, but few realize just how many other medications are derived from plants.

A number of very common and useful medications employed today have extremely interesting histories and were taken from nature. I am a medical student myself, and I hope you find the origins of these medications to be as fascinating as I do.

10 Cannabis Sativa And Dronabinol

The Cannabis sativa plant has been part of the recent controversy regarding the legality of marijuana. While marijuana is most commonly associated with the cannabis plant, there is another extremely useful pharmaceutical that has come from it.

Many know the symptoms of marijuana intoxication, including red eyes, dilated pupils, dry mouth, increased appetite, slowed reaction time, euphoria, dizziness, shallow breathing, and increased heart rate. While some of these symptoms seem unappealing, the medical community has found others to be useful in treating certain populations of patients.

The drug dronabinol has been created as a synthetic form of THC to utilize some of marijuana’s side effects. There are various uses for the drug, but most commonly, it is used as an appetite stimulant for patients with AIDS and as an antiemetic in patients receiving chemotherapy.^[1]

While there has been some controversy regarding the use of dronabinol, it has been shown to be minimally harmful with a low potential for abuse. Who knew that giving someone the munchies could be so beneficial?

9 Podophyllum Peltatum And Etoposide

The Native Americans have recorded using the plant Podophyllum peltatum as a purgative, antiparasitic, and cathartic hundreds of years before its usefulness was officially recognized. Interestingly, the Penobscot people of Maine even appeared to be using it to treat “cancer.” The Iroquois additionally used it to treat snakebites and as a suicide agent. Despite this, the medical use for P. peltatum was not official in the United States until 1820 and not until 1861 in Europe.

Hartmann Stahelin was a Swiss pharmacologist who had made large contributions to the cancer therapy field. He had a particular proclivity for biomedical sciences and was recruited to lead the pharmacology department in Basel in hopes of researching cancer and immunology in 1955.^[2]

Once in Basel, he lead the discovery of various antitumor agents from P. peltatum, also known as mayapple. Initially considered by chemists to be “dirt,” Stahelin noticed that a particular extract from the Podophyllum plant had interesting properties. After purifying this compound, it was found to be a new class of antitumor medication.

Named etoposide, the medication works by stopping the tumor cells’ ability to divide. It blocks a specific enzyme that cells need in order to replicate. Therefore, rapidly dividing cells such as cancer cells are heavily affected. Currently, etoposide is used to treat various cancers, especially that of the lung, and can be thanked for saving many lives.

8 The Calabar Bean And Physostigmine

The Efik people from the Akwa Iborn State, or modern-day Southeast Nigeria, were the first to be in contact with physostigmine from the calabar bean (Physostigma venenosum). Use of the calabar bean was very common in Efik culture as an ordeal poison for those accused of witchcraft. The milky extract of the bean was given to the accused, and if they died, the accusation of witchcraft was confirmed. If they lived, usually due to vomiting the poison out, they were declared innocent and set free.

Missionaries wrote about the Efik’s use of the calabar bean, and some of the beans found their way back to Scotland.^[3] In 1855, a toxicologist named Robert Christison decided to test the poison’s toxicity by consuming a bean and surviving to document what he experienced.

It was studied throughout the 1860s, most notably by Douglas Argyll Robertson, who was the first to use the calabar bean extracts medically and recorded its effects on the pupil. The most potent component from the calabar bean was finally isolated and named physostigmine by Thomas Fraser. In 1867, Ludwig Laqueur tested the extract on himself and used it to successfully treat his glaucoma. By the 1920s, Otto Loewi discovered the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and found that the calabar bean extract worked by increasing that neurotransmitter, having profound effects on the parasympathetic nervous system.

Medically, physostigmine does increase the amount of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine by blocking the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which breaks it down. It is especially useful in treating the disease myasthenia gravis and has been more recently used to treat Alzheimer’s, as it has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.

7 Meadow Saffron And Colchicine

The use of the plant Colchicum autumnale, or meadow saffron, for medical problems has been recorded as far back as 1500 BC on the ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus for rheumatism and swelling. Since then, C. autumnale has been a treatment for other maladies such as gout, familial Mediterranean fever, Behcet’s disease, and pericarditis. It works in a similar way to Taxol, as it blocks microtubules.

As early as the first century AD, C. autumnale was being described as a treatment for gout by Pedanius Dioscorides. Gout is a type of arthritis characterized by needle-shaped crystals building up in the joints, causing sudden pain attacks, swelling, and redness. Others, such as Alexander of Tralles, Persian physician Avicenna, and Ambroise Pare have also recommended C. autumnale as a treatment for gout. Colchicine itself was isolated from C. autumnale in 1820 by French chemists P.S. Pelletier and J.B. Caventou. It was later purified by P.L. Geiger in 1833.^[4]

Despite its long history of being effective, colchicine actually had no FDA-approved prescribing information, dosage, recommendation, or drug interaction warnings until as recently as 2009.

6 Indian Snakeroot And Reserpine

Rauwolfia serpentina (Indian snakeroot or sarpagandha) is a plant that was known in India for its medicinal purposes long before its discovery by the Western world. Georg Rumpf, a botanist with the Dutch East India Trading Company, first noticed the plant in 1755 during his travels. He recorded it as being used as a treatment for insanity in South Asia. Extracts from the roots of the Indian snakeroot were sold cheaply in markets all over India as pagalon ki dawa, or “drugs for the mad.” In addition, it was also used by mothers in Eastern India to put their crying babies to sleep as well as a treatment for labor, snakebites, fever, and intestinal problems. Mahatma Gandhi reportedly used extracts from the roots as a tranquilizer as well.

By the early 20th century, India undertook efforts to standardize and research the pharmacologic properties of sarpagandha. Professor Salimuzzaman Siddiqu began systematic research on the active constituents of the roots and root bark in 1927. Dr. Kartick Chandra Bose and Gananath Sen, two leading physicians from Calcutta (now called Kolkata), also independently noted the use of the extract to treat high blood pressure and insanity. Dr. Rustom Vakil, known as the father of modern cardiology in India, popularized the use of the plant to treat high blood pressure.

Isolated in 1952 from the dried root of R. serpentina, reserpine quickly became popular in Western medicine. It became the first drug ever to successfully show antidepressant properties in a randomized placebo-controlled trial.^[5] Though it is rarely used today due to its immense side effect profile, it was critical in furthering our understanding of the role of neurotransmitters in depression and blood pressure.

5 Indian Hemp And Pilocarpine

As settlers began coming to the New World in the early 1600s, they noticed that the indigenous tribes of Brazil had a vast knowledge of the medicinal uses of local plants. One plant in particular, Pilocarpus jaborandi (Indian hemp), was used to treat a variety of maladies but most commonly for fever. It was found that the leaves could trigger profuse sweating, salivation, and urination as a way to rid the body of toxins. The name jaborandi even comes from the Tupi translation for “what causes slobbering.”^[6]

In the 1870s, P. jaborandi was incorporated into Western medicine and became a popular treatment for intestinal problems, lung problems, fever, skin issues, kidney disease, and edema in Europe. Surprisingly, the plant was also found to be an effective antidote to deadly nightshade poisoning. By 1875, pilocarpine was isolated from the plant and found to be the main culprit behind its effects. This was discovered almost simultaneously by two different researchers, one in France and one in England.

Pilocarpine was soon found to be an extremely effective treatment for glaucoma by decreasing the pressure in the eye. Even today, it remains a very popular and widely used treatment for glaucoma as well as a means to induce perspiration when trying to diagnose cystic fibrosis. Laboratories still haven’t been able to fully replicate and synthesize the pilocarpine found in P. jaborandi. This plant remains one of Brazil’s largest and most important exports.

4 The Pacific Yew Tree And Paclitaxel

Researchers are continuously searching for new and innovative ways to fight cancer. Sometimes, the treatments that they are searching for may be much closer to home than they realize. In 1955, the National Cancer Institute created the Cancer Chemotherapy National Service Center (CCNSC) in hopes of finding new cancer treatments. In the 1960s, the CCNSC looked to partner with the US Department of Agriculture to search for these cures within nature. Over the course of about 20 years, 30,000 natural plant and animal products were tested.

Out of the 30,000 samples, one was found to be pivotal in the treatment of cancer. Two researchers, Dr. Monroe Wall and Mansukh Wani, discovered that the extracts from the bark of the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia), indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, were toxic to tumor cells.^[7] Later, it was found that the toxic compound is actually synthesized by a fungus within the bark. Thus, the new chemotherapy drug known as paclitaxel was born.

Paclitaxel (brand name Taxol) is commonly to treat breast and ovarian cancer. Medically, it works by blocking microtubules, which basically stops the cancer cells from being able to divide and grow. Since its discovery, paclitaxel has become a big part of cancer treatment and saved millions of lives.

3 Deadly Nightshade And Atropine

Atropa belladonna, commonly known as belladonna or deadly nightshade, is an herb that has been used for many centuries by many people to treat a wide variety of maladies. The plant is native to Europe, North Africa, and West Asia but has been more recently introduced to Canada and the United States. Prior to the Middle Ages, the herb was used as an anesthetic for surgery. Its deadly toxicity enabled its use as a poison for political enemies or on the tip of an arrow by the military in ancient Rome.

During the Middle Ages, the deadly nightshade plant became very popular for cosmetic purposes. Venetian women would use it to redden the pigment of their skin as a type of blush. Another common use for the herb was for dilating the pupils of women in order to make them more seductive and attractive. The herb obtained the name belladonna, meaning “beautiful lady,” exactly because of this use. Despite these more benign functions, many quickly became aware of the herb’s more deadly abilities. It was later utilized by assassins and criminals as well as witches to make poison.

Despite years of its use as a poison and cosmetic, it was soon realized that A. belladonna had more of an ability to help than previously realized. It could be used as a pain reliever, muscle relaxant, anti-inflammatory, whooping cough treatment, and hay fever treatment. In the 1930s, the therapeutic component of belladonna, known as atropine, was isolated.^[8] Belladonna, by itself, does not have approved medical uses, but atropine has since become an extremely useful medication in the medical community.

Atropine is known as an anticholinergic, meaning it blocks the effects of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Its mechanism of action is basically opposite to that of physostigmine. Because of this, atropine can cause pupil dilation, increased heart rate, and decreased secretions. In addition to its uses of raising heart rate and decreasing saliva prior to surgery, it can also be used to reverse certain overdoses. Various derivatives of atropine have also been developed for other medical uses. For example, tiotropium and ipratropium bromide are used in various lung disorders.

2 The Cinchona Tree And Quinine

Found in the bark of the cinchona tree in South America, quinine was initially used by the Quechua as a muscle relaxant.^[9] It was then brought to Europe by the Jesuits, and by 1570, the Spanish had become aware of the cinchona bark’s medicinal properties. Nicolas Monardes and Juan Fragoso recorded that it could be used as a treatment for diarrhea. Despite the varied ancient uses for quinine, the big discovery for its use came in the early 17th century.

The marshes and swamps surrounding Rome in the early 17th century were teeming with malaria-ridden mosquitoes. Malaria is a mosquito-borne infection caused by parasitic protozoans. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, vomiting, headache, jaundice, seizures, and eventually death. Malaria lead to the deaths of many popes, cardinals, and citizens at the time. Agostino Salumbrino, a Jesuit apothecary, had seen the cinchona bark being used for the shivering phase of malaria. At the time, Salumbrino did not know that the bark’s effect on malaria was unrelated to its effect on rigors, but regardless, he brought it to Rome.

Over the years, cinchona bark became one of the most valuable exports from Peru, even curing King Charles II. In 1737, Charles Marie de La Condamine discovered the most potent component of cinchona bark, and it was later isolated by Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Caventou in 1820. The extract was was named quinine, based on the Incan word quina, meaning “bark” or “holy bark.”

Large-scale malaria prophylaxis with quinine began around 1850. The drug actually played a very significant role in African colonization by Europeans. In the early 19th century, Peru tried to outlaw the export of cinchona bark, seeds, and saplings to maintain their monopoly. Fortunately for the world, the Dutch were successful at growing the tree in their Indonesian plantations and soon became the main supplier.

During World War II, the Allies were cut off from quinine when Germany conquered the Netherlands and Japan controlled Indonesia and the Philippines. The United States was eventually able to obtain four million seeds from the Philippines, but not before thousands of Allied troops died from malaria in Africa and the South Pacific. Thousands of Japanese troops also died despite their control, due to ineffective manufacturing of quinine.

Since its discovery, quinine has played a role in saving millions of lives as well as having major effects on wars, colonization, and history in general. It has since been replaced as the first-line treatment for malaria by newer drugs in 2006 by the World Health Organization. Quinine can also be used for other diseases, such as babesiosis, restless leg syndrome, lupus, and arthritis.

1 Foxglove And Digoxin

Digoxin was once a mainstay treatment for heart failure and arrhythmia. It works by slowing the patient’s heart rate but increasing the heart’s contraction intensity. Unfortunately, the drug has a very narrow therapeutic index, meaning that it can be extremely easy to overdose, with disastrous effects.

Digoxin’s discovery by Scottish doctor William Withering occurred in 1775 . He was working as a physician when a patient came to him suffering from a bad heart condition. Withering had nothing to offer the man, as there was no acceptable treatment for heart failure at the time. Thinking he was going to die, the patient went to a town gypsy and miraculously improved after being given an herbal remedy.

After seeing this, Dr. Withering searched for the gypsy, eventually finding her and demanding to know what was in her remedy. After Dr. Withering bargained with the gypsy, she finally revealed many things within the remedy, but Digitalis purpurea, or foxglove, was the main ingredient. The potency of foxglove was already well-known, as it had been used as a poison in medieval trials by ordeal as well as externally applied to heal wounds.

Withering immediately went to work testing variations of the foxglove extract on 163 patients. He eventually found that dried, powdered leaves gave him the most successful results, and it was first officially used in 1785.^[10] Even though it is not as commonly used now, digoxin was revolutionary in its ability to help those with heart failure.

+ Chondrodendron Tomentosum Vine And Tubocurarine

For centuries, South American natives used poison from the Chondrodendron tomentosum vine to hunt animals. When Spanish conquistadors returned from the New World, they spoke of a mysterious “flying death.” In 1516, Peter Martyr d’Anghera, a chronicler, wrote of these tales in his book De Orbe Novo for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Sir Walter Raleigh visited Venezuela in 1594 and also recorded the use of the poisoned arrows in his book Discovery of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guiana. One of Sir Raleigh’s lieutenants referred to the poison as ourari, which later became various European renderings, one of which was “curare.”

Further exploration of South America was put on hold until the 18th century due to wars. A physician named Edward Bancroft traveled to South America for five years and was able to bring back some samples of curare. Sir Benjamin Brodie then used his samples on small animals. He was able to keep them alive after inflating their lungs with bellows. Charles Waterton moved to South America in 1804 and obtained some ourari from a local tribe. In 1814, he demonstrated its effects on three donkeys to an audience that included Sir Benjamin Brodie. The first donkey had its shoulder injected with the extract and died immediately. The second had it injected under a tourniquet on its leg and lived until the tourniquet was removed. The third died after its injection but was revived with bellows and went on to survive.

Curare was found to work at the nerve-muscle junction after Claude Bernard’s experiments on frogs. Further research on curare discovered that it had potential as a muscle relaxant for patients under anesthesia. Curare-like compounds were created, mirroring the original isolated curare. Today, these compounds are vital to almost all procedures involving anesthesia. The drugs work by causing complete skeletal muscle relaxation during surgery or mechanical ventilation as a part of the general anesthesia protocol.^[11]

Shelby is currently a third-year medical student. While she doesn’t have much free time anymore, she still loves writing top 10 lists when inspiration strikes.

Whether we choose to admit it or not, we have all made mistakes at one time or another. Even though these errors help us learn and grow along the way, that also does not mean we are immune to future mistakes.

A childhood mistake might consist of something simple such as forgetting to put away your toys or failing to turn in your homework, whereas an adult mistake might be something a bit more serious such as forgetting to lock the doors to your home or accidentally leaving the stove on. Yet regardless of the error, we are faced with some sort of disciplinary action or punishment as a result of our oversight.

However, we typically would not equate being shot at or losing our life as a “punishment” for something as simple as a mistake. We also certainly would not assume that our error in judgment might take another’s life. Unfortunately, this was the sad reality for those on this list.

Here are ten times a seemingly innocent mistake led to a tragic outcome.

Related: Top 10 Stupid Mistakes That Ended A Serial Killer’s Career

9 Getting into the Wrong Car

In the early morning hours of April 18, 2023, 18-year-old Payton Washington, 21-year-old Heather Roth, and two other young women were heading home from cheerleading practice at Woodlands Elite Cheer Co. in Oak Ridge North, Texas.

Given that the young women had to travel approximately 360 miles (579 kilometers) round-trip three times a week for their competitive cheerleading practice, they used the H-E-B supermarket in Elgin, Texas, as a meeting place and then carpooled together.

When the women arrived back at the H-E-B parking lot, Roth exited her friend’s car and opened the door to a vehicle she believed was hers. Unfortunately, Roth noticed a man sitting in the passenger seat. Assuming a stranger was in her car, Roth panicked and promptly exited the vehicle, getting back into her friend’s car.

The person in the mistaken car then got out and approached the young women. Roth rolled down her window and attempted to apologize for the mix-up, but the man “threw his hands up, pulled out a gun, and started shooting.”

Washington was unfortunately shot in the leg and back during the altercation, causing damage to multiple organs. She was taken to a local hospital by helicopter, where she underwent surgery to remove her ruptured spleen. Roth suffered a graze wound and was treated and released at the scene.

The suspect, 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., was taken into custody and charged with deadly conduct.^[1]

9 Misplaced DoorDash Order

On September 8, 2022, 20-year-old Fernando Soloman of Conyers, Georgia, placed an order with DoorDash. However, when the DoorDash driver arrived, Solomon’s food was delivered to the wrong duplex unit and left next door.

Naturally assuming there was a simple way to rectify the mistake, Soloman went next door to retrieve his food. Sadly, not only would Soloman never receive his food, but he also would never make it back home.

When Soloman arrived next door, one of the residents, 44-year-old Zaire Watson Sr., received a Ring camera notification on his cell phone. Given that he was not home at the time, he called his son, Zaire Cortell Watson Jr., who was at home at the time. Watson Jr. stated he then saw Soloman reach into his pocket, so he opened the door and shot him.

Deputies were later dispatched to the scene and found Soloman on the ground bleeding from gunshot wounds. The deputies attempted to perform first aid and stop the blood flow until EMS arrived, but Soloman died on the scene.

Watson Jr. was detained at the scene and admitted to the shooting. He was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault, murder, and felony murder.^[2]

8 Incorrect Use of Pesticide

In an attempt to kill mice, Peter Balderas spread Weevil-Cide pellets—a fumigant used against destructive pests and burrowing rodents—underneath the mobile home he shared with his wife Martha and their eight children in Amarillo, Texas.

Balderas obtained the heavily-regulated commercial-grade pesticide from a friend, Isidro Ulloa, who was not a licensed fumigator and did not inform Balderas about the product. Unfortunately, the directions were solely in English, so Balderas, who is a native Spanish speaker and cannot read English, was unable to read the product instructions and was unaware of the deadly gas the pesticide creates if misused.

Therefore, when someone in the home complained about the smell of the pesticide, Balderas crawled underneath his home and attempted to simply wash away the Weevil-Cide with water from a garden hose. Weevil-Cide reacts when it is mixed with moisture, so in doing so, Balderas unknowingly released phosphine gas.

On January 2, 2017, a friend went to the Balderas’s home and called 911 after finding everyone sick.

Sadly, four of the Balderas children—three boys aged 7, 9, and 11, and a 17-year-old girl—died due to “complications of acute aluminum phosphide (phosphine gas) exposure” as well as pulmonary edema, one on scene and the other three at the hospital. Balderas and his other four children were hospitalized for several days, and Martha spent weeks in intensive care but survived.

The Balderases went on to file a wrongful death lawsuit against United Phosphorus, the maker of Weevil-Cide, given the lack of adequate bilingual instructions and warnings. They also named Ulloa in the lawsuit.^[3]

7 Pulling into the Wrong Driveway

On April 15, 2023, 19-year-old Blake Walsh, 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis—his girlfriend of four years—and two other friends were traveling together in search of a party that was being held by local high school graduates in Hebron, New York. An additional group of friends—one in a car and one on a motorcycle—were also traveling with Walsh’s Ford Explorer to the party.

Just before 10 pm, the group drove up the driveway of a residence where they assumed the party was. Unfortunately, given the rural area, lack of cell service, and poorly lit driveways, it wasn’t until later that the group of friends realized they were at the wrong location.

Sadly, even though no one in the group exited the vehicle or attempted to enter the property, as they began to turn around and leave, the property owner, 65-year-old Kevin Monahan, who “had a reputation as a sour character who did not like visitors,” fired two shots from his front porch.

Gillis was in the front passenger seat, and given that Walsh’s SUV was the last vehicle to turn around, one of the bullets entered through the rear driver’s side, striking Gillis in the neck.

Walsh drove for approximately 5 miles (8 kilometers) in search of cell service before reaching the neighboring town of Salem and being able to call 911. Emergency responders arrived and attempted to perform CPR on Gillis, but she was unfortunately pronounced dead at the scene.

When police arrived at Monahan’s residence, he was initially uncooperative, refusing to speak with investigators, stating he had been “in bed since 8:30 pm.” and blaming the gunfire on hunters. However, after an hour of authorities communicating with him both in person and through a 911 dispatcher, Monahan was taken into custody early the next day and was charged with second-degree murder, reckless endangerment, and tampering with evidence.

Monahan’s lawyer later issued a statement regarding the shooting that said, “The vehicles speeding up the driveway with engines revving and lights shining certainly caused some level of alarm to an elderly gentleman who had an elderly wife” and that Mr. Monahan “sincerely regrets this tragedy.”^[4]

6 Mistaken for a Car Thief

On December 31, 2022, 30-year-old Quadarius McDowell took his car to the Tires Plus shop in Decatur, Georgia, in order to have brake work done on the vehicle. However, when McDowell returned to pick up his vehicle, tragedy unfolded.

Upon his return, McDowell saw 24-year-old Daniel Gordon driving his vehicle in the parking lot. Gordon was a mechanic at the Tires Plus location and was simply taking the car for a test drive. Sadly, McDowell assumed Gordon was trying to steal his vehicle and began firing multiple shots, hitting Gordon, and then fleeing the scene on foot.

Gordon was taken to a local hospital but did not survive. McDowell was found hiding nearby a short time later and was arrested. He was charged with malice murder.^[5]

5 Knocking on the Wrong Apartment Door

Nineteen-year-old Omarion Banks and his girlfriend, Zsakeria Mathis, had just moved into a new apartment in Atlanta, Georgia. Banks had been visiting his mother, so in the early morning hours of March 29, 2019, Mathis sent a Lyft to pick up Banks and bring him home.

Unfortunately, the Lyft driver dropped Banks off near the wrong breezeway, and since he wasn’t familiar with the area, he ended up knocking on the wrong apartment door.

While Banks eventually began to walk away from the door, the resident of the apartment, 32-year-old Darryl Bynes, grabbed his gun before heading out on his balcony to confront Banks. From there, a verbal exchange ensued between the two, and even though Banks tried to apologize before fleeing down the stairs, Bynes fired his gun three times, striking Banks twice in the neck.

Bynes then called 911 and told the dispatcher he fired in self-defense, assuming Banks was trying to break into his apartment. First responders were sent to the complex, but even with both EMTs and neighbors attempting to provide medical attention to Banks, he died on the scene.

Bynes was charged with murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree criminal property damage, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. On July 18, 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison plus 15 years.^[6]

4 Basketball Rolling into Neighbor’s Yard

April 18, 2023, initially seemed like a normal spring evening. William James White was grilling and his six-year-old daughter Kinsley was playing with friends and riding her bike while another group of kids played a game of basketball in their Crowders Mountain, North Carolina, neighborhood.

At some point during the game, the basketball rolled into 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary’s yard. However, as the children went to retrieve the ball, Singletary began yelling at them. One of the children then told his father what happened, and the father went to Singletary’s house to confront him. But the confrontation only fueled Singletary’s anger. Singletary went inside his home, got a gun, and came out of the door running, opening fire on the neighbors.

White then stepped in and attempted to round up the neighborhood children and get them to safety. Given the dangerous behavior, White then approached Singletary and told him there were too many children outside for him to be shooting. White’s comment did not sit well with Singletary, who dropped the gun he was holding, grabbed another, and began firing at White and his daughter Kinsley.

After three shots, White saw Singletary point his gun straight at Kinsley, and as White ran to shield her from the gunfire, he was shot in the back. The bullet punctured one of his lungs and liver before exiting from his belly. The shrapnel from the bullet then lodged in Kinsley’s cheek. Singletary went on to fire three more times before fleeing the scene.

Upon hearing the gunshots, Carl Hilderbrand, Kinsley’s grandfather, instructed neighbors to call 911. White was taken to a local hospital and later flown to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, before being released on April 22, 2023. Kinsley was taken to the emergency room, where she was treated.

On April 20, 2023, Singletary, who had made it all the way to Tampa, Florida, turned himself in and was later extradited to North Carolina. He faces four charges of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflict serious injury, and possession of a firearm by a felon.^[7]

3 Choosing Wrong Hiding Spot During Hide and Seek Game

On May 7, 2023, an unidentified 14-year-old girl was among a group of juveniles that were playing hide and seek in a Starks, Louisiana, neighborhood. However, the children made the unfortunate mistake of playing hide and seek in a neighbor’s backyard and hiding on the property.

Therefore, when the property owner, 58-year-old David V. Doyle, observed “shadows outside his home,” he went to retrieve his firearm. Although the children meant no harm, when Doyle saw people running away from his property, he began firing at them, unknowingly hitting the 14-year-old girl in the back of the head.

Deputies were called to the scene, and the teenager was transported to an out-of-town hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Her family later stated she was “okay and recovering.”

Doyle was arrested and charged with aggravated battery, four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, and illegal discharge of a firearm.^[8]

2 Mistaken Identity

Thirty-six-year-old Kerisha Johnson of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was nine months pregnant and days away from giving birth to her third daughter.

Tragically, on April 16, 2023, as Johnson was picking people up from an Easter “teen party,” several people pulled out guns before pointing them at Johnson’s vehicle and opening fire. Johnson attempted to flee the scene but was struck, killing both her and her unborn baby.

The shooters had encountered a vehicle earlier in the night that fired a round into the air as they drove past the party. Unfortunately, when Johnson arrived, they mistook her white sedan for the vehicle that had driven by earlier and began shooting at her before fleeing the scene.

Nineteen-year-old Marques Porch was later located by police, along with several other passengers. Porch, along with nineteen-year-old Gregory Parker and 19-year-old Derrick Curry, were all arrested and charged with second-degree murder and first-degree feticide. Porch, who provided firearms to the other two teens, was employed by the Department of Corrections as a transportation driver but was “terminated immediately.”

Nineteen-year-old Desmond Robinson and 18-year-old Torey Campbell were also later arrested for their involvement in the shooting and charged with first-degree murder and first-degree feticide.^[9]

1 Went to the Wrong House to Pick Up Siblings

On April 13, 2023, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl’s mother asked him to pick up his younger twin brothers from a friend’s house located at Northeast 115th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri. However, Yarl had never been to the home before and accidentally arrived at the wrong address—Northeast 115th Street.

Unaware of his mistake, Yarl naturally pulled his car into the driveway before walking up the steps and ringing the doorbell. After waiting “a long time,” 84-year-old Andrew Lester opened the door but pulled out a gun, aiming directly at Yarl. Yarl stated Lester then told him, “Don’t ever come here again,” before pulling the trigger, hitting Yarl in the head and the right arm.

Despite his injuries, Yarl went to multiple homes, shouting for help until someone finally answered and agreed to contact the police. Yarl was taken to the hospital, and although he survived, he suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Lester was detained for less than two hours the night of the shooting but turned himself in approximately one week later. Regarding the shooting, Lester claimed he was scared and “believed someone was attempting to break into the house” after seeing a “black male approximately 6 feet [1.8 meters] tall.”

Lester was charged with felony first-degree assault and armed criminal action but pleaded not guilty to the charges. On April 18, 2023, Lester was released on bond pending his preliminary hearing in August 2023.

Given that the shooting happened in the neighborhood where Yarl lived, he initially went to live with his aunt, Faith Spoonmore, before his family eventually relocated to another area.^[10]

There is a very thin line—one that’s easy to cross and even easier to blur in the field of medicine—where ethical experimentation and the malicious pursuit of knowledge through unethical means meet and perhaps even overlap. What is ethical science in the world of human subjects, and who’s to be the judge of that?

Is consent all that’s really needed for an experiment to be considered humane, and if so, how much consent? How many of the details does a patient need to know to reach the threshold of doctors safely saying that consent was, in fact, informed consent?

Throughout history, this line has been crossed many times, much to the tragic dismay, torture, and even death of some of the so-called patients who’ve been experimented on. There have been great breakthroughs in medical science through experimentation on living human beings, but at what cost?

Sometimes, tests were conducted upon individuals without their knowledge that they were the subjects of an experiment. Here are 10 such cases that led to medical breakthroughs.

10 Influenza
1941

Nobody likes getting the flu. It comes along when we least expect it, infecting us and making us sick for days or even weeks, sometimes leaving us bedridden for extended periods of time. But imagine getting the flu unsuspectingly and then finding out that someone had administered it to you. Well, that’s exactly what happened in the United States from 1941 onward in the name of experimentation.

Thomas Francis Jr., the microbiologist who originally isolated the viruses known as influenza A and B, conducted some of these experiments in 1941 on institutionalized persons, including children. Many of the experiments were conducted using people who’d become property of the state or were otherwise in mental asylums.

Francis didn’t tell them that he was spraying his recently isolated flu virus up their noses when he gave them a nasal spray. Even more terrifying, when the medical community found out about it, they seemed to think that the ends justified the means. The dominant ideology of the day was that it was perfectly okay to subject unwitting people to diseases and medical mistreatment as long as the research led to breakthroughs.^[1]

These tests paved the way for a greater understanding of influenza as a series of viruses and led to vaccines, many of which protected US troops during World War II.

9 Gynecology

Gynecology is a science that has a history replete with unethical tests and especially surgeries on subjects. What a nightmarish thought it is to be strapped or forced down while someone performs a surgery on you without your consent as you struggle to break free.

James Marion Sims was a surgeon and scientist who’s often credited as being “the father of modern gynecology.” The ways he came to his conclusions in medicine were rather striking.

His experiments took place in the 1840s in the United States when slavery was still legal. They were conducted without anesthesia almost exclusively on enslaved women who hadn’t given consent. Extremely painful surgeries were performed on helpless women who couldn’t legally say no.

Through these methods, Sims invented all sorts of dilators which opened the vagina, especially to treat vaginal fistulas, abscesses, or openings that connect one organ to another unnaturally. He forced his various instruments on unwitting women in the name of science and sadly paved the way for a lot of gynecological work as we know it today.

If anything, these faceless women who suffered at the hands of medical experimentation should be called “the mothers of modern gynecology” rather than giving James Marion Sims a similar title.^[2]

8 Spinal Taps

Back in 1896, we didn’t quite yet know whether spinal taps would be harmful procedures with short-term or long-term effects. Thus, some tests needed to be done. In one of the most twisted cases of medical experimentation, a doctor by the name of Arthur Wentworth stepped up to the plate.

He performed spinal taps on 29 children to test the safety of the procedure. Obviously, these children could not consent, and some argued that the kids weren’t even sick. Even for that time, people were outraged that a doctor was using children to test the safety of a new surgical procedure.

Even worse, it was immediately alleged that Wentworth didn’t even gather consent from the parents, who also didn’t know that their children would be used to study the effectiveness of spinal taps. But it’s certain that Wentworth was instrumental in pioneering many modern surgical procedures, such as the lumbar puncture which is still used today.^[3]

His supporters at the time claimed that the ends justified the means, while his opponents were mortified.

7 San Quentin

San Quentin is a prison in Northern California near San Francisco. It became the place that would facilitate one of the worst cases of experimentation on living, non-consenting subjects in history. These nightmarish tests were conducted by Leo Stanley, who served as the chief medical surgeon for the prison from 1913 to 1951. Stanley brought about some medical advancements in an extremely unorthodox way. In fact, he taught us exactly what not to do.

During his tenure, Stanley was obsessed with the genitals of men. He fixated on Hitler-like eugenics, hated homosexuality, thought that white Christians were the superior race, and thus advocated the active sterilization of the rest.

In some of the most evil experiments in world history, Stanley took the testicles from deceased prisoners and grafted them into living ones. Even more disturbing, Stanley sometimes transplanted animal testicles into living people.^[4]

His experiments affected countless men over decades and were his search for a more “vital” man through regulating testosterone production. This was the forerunner to modern hormone therapy before they got the chemistry figured out.

Ultimately, Stanley advanced the field of medicine by giving an undeniable example of the need for more oversight in the medical facilities within prison walls. For the longest time, many people like Leo Stanley were able to operate unhindered as long as they conducted their bizarre experiments on prisoners. He helped to give us a reason to usher in the new area of medical ethics for those who’ve been imprisoned.

6 Tuskegee Experiment

The Tuskegee experiment is another long-standing, unethical, horrifying case of medical science gone wrong. An idea that was already morally awful in theory became tremendously worse in practice.

Beginning in 1932, the experiment sought to identify the stages of syphilis and how to treat them as there was no known cure at the time. It was the era of the Jim Crow laws in the United States. Technically, African Americans had been freed from slavery, but racism and horrible treatment was still very much alive and well as proven by the Tuskegee experiment.

The study was performed on a large group of African-American men who had contracted syphilis and another group who had not. The researchers intentionally gave syphilis to the group who was initially free of the disease and observed the results.

Before this, the major known work on syphilis was a Norwegian study conducted in Oslo, Norway, in 1928. But this research only used people who’d already contracted the disease, not patients who were newly infected with it.

So the Tuskegee study sought to complement the Oslo research. Of course, the major problem with Tuskegee was that they did not obtain the consent of those in the study and didn’t even tell them what was happening.^[5]

Before it had even begun, the study lost its funding with the stock market crash of 1929. The researchers decided to go through with it anyway and promised free medical treatment and food to those who participated.

But the free medical treatment never came. They just left the subjects to get progressively worse. The study went on for 40 years until a whistle-blower discovered it and leaked the information to a reporter. By 1972, everyone knew what was happening.

While horribly unethical, much of our knowledge of the ever-changing syphilis infection comes from the research done over this 40-year period as, oddly enough, the researchers never actually tried to hide what they were doing. They published their findings for the medical community.

We now know well the stages of syphilis from beginning to end. Our knowledge of a terrible disease was greatly advanced but at a tragic and deeply unethical cost.

5 Hepatitis
1947

In 1947, a rather disgusting study on the spread and control of the hepatitis virus was conducted by Dr. Joseph Stokes Jr., who gathered test subjects and fed them. However, he didn’t tell them exactly what he was feeding them.

In another example of plainly cruel medical research, Stokes gave participants chocolate milkshakes without telling them that the shakes had been mixed in a blender with livers containing the hepatitis virus. Feces containing the virus were also blended into the milkshakes.

The subjects were prisoners with no history of jaundice or presence of the hepatitis virus. So Stokes intentionally infected otherwise healthy people without their knowledge. As a result, he gave hepatitis to them and likely many other prisoners after the original patients returned to the general prison population, thus allowing the disease to spread.

In 1950, Stokes performed more experiments by intentionally giving 200 female prisoners hepatitis to further study the virus.

His work led to some advancements in our understanding of the hepatitis virus, namely how to control the disease and that having one type of hepatitis doesn’t protect someone from contracting another type. In fact, Stokes discovered that having one type of the virus increased the likelihood that a person would contract another type of hepatitis. But this knowledge came at a horrible cost.^[6]

4 MK-ULTRA

MK-ULTRA was a series of experiments conducted by the CIA to test many different things—from electric shock therapy to the effects of drugs. The premise was to discover or counteract means of controlling the mind, especially those of military prisoners.

The studies were conducted between 1953 and 1973. Among other things, they included dosing unsuspecting people with LSD to see how they would react. The unknowing subjects were at bars or the beach when researchers dropped drugs in their drinks and then observed their reactions. It was like date rape without the rape but with all the nightmarish psychological torture.

The CIA even dosed its own agents without their knowledge. One of their top scientists died when he was drugged without his knowledge and fell from a hotel building.^[7]

Though much of the documentation was destroyed, most major advancements in our knowledge of illegal drugs such as MDMA and especially LSD came from these horrific experiments that claimed lives and caused permanent damage in people who survived.

3 Acres Of Skin

The phrase “acres of skin” is exactly what Dr. Albert Kligman admitted to thinking when he entered the walls of Holmesburg Prison in Pennsylvania. The prisoners were his new test subjects.

His experiment? To test mind-altering drugs and weapons of war on the prison population.

Yes, this was legalized torture in small degrees that both the US military and 33 different corporations had funded. It often included applying small amounts of poisonous substances onto or into the skin of patients.

The military purpose of one experiment was to determine the minimum dose of a drug needed to render at least 50 percent of a population impotent. The tests at Holmesburg Prison were nightmarish. Even the more harmless substances tested, such as toothpaste and deodorant, were torturous because Kligman would have the application sites on the patients biopsied and observed.

These experiments lasted from 1951 to 1974. They produced a slew of information that led to advancements in many of the products we use today, especially with respect to skin care.

Ever notice that many topical creams and other products contain very small amounts of active ingredients? These tests determined the harmful amounts and narrowed them down to the appropriate doses.^[8]

Dr. Kligman has over 500 publications and thousands of citations by others in subsequent works today. Yet again, the questions remain: At what cost? Did the ends justify the means?

2 Blood Substitute

Sometimes, medical advancements come in the form of telling us exactly what not to do. Such is the case with the controversy surrounding a company called Northfield Laboratories and their ethics in administering a product called artificial blood.

In the 2000s, Northfield traveled to cities and towns and began informing the residents about the company’s new product, which was artificial blood. It was a blood substitute that didn’t carry the risks, such as disease, of actual blood transfusions and could also be given to people with religious objections.

Then Northfield was backed by the FDA in conducting a no-consent study. As their unwitting test subjects, the company used trauma patients who were incapable of consenting to receive the blood product. An alarming 13.2 percent of the blood substitute patients died as compared to the 9.6 percent death rate with the saline control group.

The study was a complete disaster. At a tragic cost in human lives lost, the researchers learned that artificial blood may mimic human blood, but a lot of work and lab testing needs to be done before artificial blood can come close to performing the same functions as actual blood.^[9]

1 Syphilis
1946–1948

While the Tuskegee study was ongoing, another experiment involving syphilis was conducted in Guatemala. In 1946, we had penicillin, which was known for its strength as an antibiotic, and we had syphilis, a curiously difficult disease to treat. Researchers decided to determine the effectiveness of using penicillin in syphilis cases.

They came up with a horrible idea to make this happen. US researchers infected unsuspecting people in Guatemala with the bacteria which causes the disease. Some of the victims were prostitutes, the mentally handicapped, prisoners, and even orphaned children.

The researchers’ methods were particularly gruesome. They poured the syphilis bacteria into the penises of men or slyly sneaked it into something that would be applied to the skin of individuals who had open wounds. They intentionally infected people to observe the effects of the treatment.

Fortunately for some, the penicillin worked. But what about the control group?

This particular experiment taught us much in how to use penicillin in conjunction with things like condoms to control the spread of the disease.^[10] But again, those results came at a tragic cost due to the unethical nature of the methods employed.

Here’s a fun little one on unethical, nonconsensual medical tests and experiments which ultimately led to knowledge and advancements in the medical field. Sometimes, those advancements were knowing exactly what not to do.