According to the idea of the “butterfly effect,” even the smallest causes can have large, unforeseen consequences. The term itself came courtesy of MIT meteorology professor Edward Lorenz. He used a computer program to simulate weather patterns with a dozen variables over long periods of time. Lorenz noticed that just rounding off one variable from .506127 to .506 was enough to drastically alter the entire pattern, and he equated it to the flapping of a butterfly’s wings influencing a tornado weeks later.

The following items weren’t quite as minor as a butterfly flapping its wings, but nevertheless, few could have predicted the impact they would have on the world.

10 The Garbage Bag That Helped Foil The Heist Of The Century

Back in 2003, a group of thieves robbed the Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC), making off with over $100 million in diamonds, gold, and jewelry. The press quickly dubbed it the “heist of the century.” The criminals managed to break into a supposedly impenetrable vault which was protected by ten layers of security, including Doppler radar, heat detectors, and seismic sensors. If only they were more careful when getting rid of their trash.

Now we move on to August Van Camp, a retired grocer. He owned a small strip of forest where he liked to roam with his two pet weasels. However, because the land was next to the highway, people would often dump their garbage on the property. The day after the heist, he found a trash bag on his land, and, as he did many times before, he called the police to complain. Van Camp began listing off various items in the refuse pile, which included videotape, a half-eaten salami sandwich, and empty envelopes marked “Antwerp Diamond Center.” That last one caught the attention of the police, who came down to investigate.

Among the rubbish were bits of torn paper which, when assembled, revealed an invoice for a video surveillance system billed to Leonardo Notarbartolo.^[1] DNA from the sandwich also pointed back to him. He was a high-ranking member of a gang known as the School of Turin. He was sentenced to ten years, and although circumstantial evidence suggested the identities of his partners, Notarbartolo never exposed them.

9 The Missing Key That Could Have Saved The Titanic

David Blair was a British merchant seaman who was appointed by the White Star Line in 1912 as second officer of the Titanic. He participated in the sea trials, but days before the ship’s maiden voyage, he was replaced with the more experienced Henry Wilde. In his rush to leave, Blair accidentally took the key to the crow’s nest locker with him, thus denying the lookouts the pair of binoculars that could have prevented the tragedy from ever happening.

The missing binoculars became a point of interest during the inquiry into the Titanic’s sinking. One of the surviving lookouts, Frederick Fleet, testified that binoculars would have enabled him to see the iceberg with enough time to get out of the way.^[2]

Others also feel that the missing key would have changed the course of events that day, but not everyone is convinced. For starters, some versions of the story say crew members couldn’t find the binoculars because Blair left them in his cabin or because he took them with him, as they were his personal pair. After all, if the glasses were that vital, the ship’s crew could have broken into the locker or sourced another pair. There are plenty of other theories of what went wrong that day, and this remains an unanswerable “what if.” Even so, many people still see the historical value of the missing key, as it was sold at auction in 2010 for $137,000.

8 The Typo That Brought Down A Government

At first glance, a typo doesn’t seem like a big deal. It’s a mistake that can happen to anyone, and most people should be able to discern the intended meaning from context. However, historically, there have been numerous examples of typos that came with a heavy cost. In 1999, typos managed to bring down the Kuwaiti parliament.

The initial plan was to print a state version of the Quran which would be available for free to all citizens. However, whoever was in charge of publishing didn’t do a very good job because the holy books contained several misprinted verses, while others were missing altogether. Pretty soon, this caused a row, with most of the anger directed at the minister for Islamic affairs, Ahmad al-Kulaib. He faced a vote of no confidence, which he lost. However, this wasn’t enough to make the controversy go away, and the emir of Kuwait, facing growing pressure, had to dissolve the National Assembly.^[3]

7 The Train Ride That Founded Molecular Medicine

Linus Pauling (pictured left above) is widely considered one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and has two Nobel Prizes to his name. He is typically seen as one of the founders of molecular biology and was particularly interested in studying the structure of proteins. In 1949, Pauling, along with fellow biologists Harvey Itano, S.J. Singer, and Ibert Wells, published a paper called “Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease,” which provided the first proof for human diseases caused by abnormal proteins. It was later deemed as the foundation for the field of molecular medicine, and it has its roots in a chance encounter during a train ride.

Back in 1940, a medical student at Johns Hopkins University named Irving Sherman observed that light passing through the red blood cells of sickle-cell patients was transmitted differently than through regular cells. He published his findings, but nothing really became of it. However, they did reach Harvard professor of medicine William Castle. Years later, the professor found himself sharing a train with Pauling and began chatting about biology. Castle told the distinguished chemist about Sherman’s observations.^[4]

By that point, Pauling had already studied proteins extensively, and he immediately suspected hemoglobin as the culprit. He used a protein-separating process called electrophoresis to analyze samples from people with sickle-cell disease, people without it, and people who carried the sickle-cell trait. He discovered that the first two groups had different types of hemoglobin, while the third had both types. This formed the basis for his aforementioned seminal paper.

6 The Software Update That Brought Down A Banking Giant

Software updates have become an annoying but necessary occurrence in our modern lives. However, all we know to do is accept the “Terms & Conditions” and press “Next” a few times. Anything more than that, and we’re stumped. Typically, failing to update a piece of software doesn’t come with grave consequences, but it once managed to shut down one of the largest banking groups in the world.

June 19, 2012, was supposed to be a typical day for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS Group). Its technical staff had to apply a regular patch to the CA-7 software, which controlled the bank’s payment processing system. As some outlets reported, this task was left to an “inexperienced operative.”^[5] They tried to patch the software and encountered an error. No big deal, just back out of the update and try again. However, when he backed out, the staff member accidentally cleared the system’s whole queue. This created a huge backlog of information that needed to be re-inputted and reprocessed.

For six days, millions of people were unable to withdraw money from their accounts or make online transactions. Some missed mortgage or bill payments, while others were left stranded abroad with no money. In a dire case, a seven-year-old girl was in danger of being taken off life support because her family couldn’t pay for her treatment.

5 The Pirates Who Stopped The Metric System

Joseph Dombey was a French botanist who, in 1794, was on his way to Philadelphia to meet with first US secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson. At the behest of the French government, Dombey was carrying with him rare cargo—a set of measurement standards called a meter and a kilogram (back then still known as a grave). Jefferson was keen to persuade Americans to adopt the French measurements, which later formed the basis for the metric system. So were many people in Congress eager to get rid of the British measurements. Having the standards presented by a respected scientist such as Dombey should have made it an easy task.

Unfortunately, Dombey never made it to Philadelphia, as his ship was captured by pirates.^[6] He tried to disguise himself as a Spanish sailor, but his accent and his poor understanding of the language gave him away. The pirates took him to Montserrat to ransom him to the French government. However, Dombey died in captivity. It would be another century before the US government adopted the metric system under the Mendenhall Order of 1893. Even today, however, most Americans are more familiar with the British Imperial units of measurement.

4 The Clouds That Saved Kokura And Doomed Nagasaki

On the morning of August 9, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Bockscar took off from the North Field on the island of Tinian carrying one of the deadliest payloads in history—the Fat Man nuclear bomb. As most people know, the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, but that wasn’t the original intended target.

The United States identified several potential bombing targets. One of them was Kyoto, which was spared at the insistence of Secretary of War Henry Stimson, who honeymooned there. Another one was Kokura, a city which housed a giant munitions factory. On its way to its destination, Bockscar was supposed to rendezvous with two other planes—the Great Artiste and the Big Stink. The latter never showed up, and the others left after a 50-minute delay. By that time, visibility above Kokura had worsened due to clouds.

Some official versions say the weather turned bad, while others claimed it was actually smoke from the firebombing of nearby Yawata the day prior.^[7] A third version says visibility was obscured by steam purposely created as a countermeasure against the bombers. Whatever their origin, those clouds prevented the crew aboard the Bockscar from visually confirming their targets as instructed. Running low on fuel, they headed for their alternative target, which was Nagasaki.

3 The Piece Of Tape That Ended A Presidency

To this day, Watergate remains one of the biggest political scandals in US history. The revelation that Nixon’s administration was involved in a conspiracy to spy on political opponents and other officials led to the president’s resignation and the indictment of 69 people. And the whole thing started with a piece of duct tape.

On the night of June 17, 1972, 24-year-old security guard Frank Wills was doing his rounds at the Watergate Office Building. During his first round, he noticed a piece of duct tape on a basement door, placed over the bolt to prevent it from latching shut. Initially, he thought a worker used it during the day to get in and out more easily and forgot the duct tape there. Wills simply removed it and moved on. However, after another inspection half an hour later, he saw a new piece of duct tape in the same spot.^[8] This time, he called the police. Authorities went from room to room and found five burglars in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.

An investigation eventually connected Nixon to the conspiracy and led to his resignation. As for Frank Wills, he actually quit soon after for not getting a raise. He didn’t make much money from his involvement in Watergate, but he did get to play himself in the 1976 classic All the President’s Men.

2 The Blackout That Led To The Rise Of Hip-Hop

New York blackouts always seem to come with good stories. There is the popular myth that the 1965 Northeast blackout, which affected 30 million people, led to a massive spike in birth rates nine months later. And many credit the 1977 blackout for helping popularize the new movement of hip-hop.

On July 13, 1977, most of New York City and its surroundings were impacted by a blackout. This was at a time when the city was affected by a fiscal crisis, experiencing a severe heat wave, and under the threat of David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam. Tensions were running high, and 31 neighborhoods fell victim to looting and vandalism. Among the looters were many up-and-coming DJs and b-boys who saw the blackout as a golden opportunity to “acquire” new sound equipment.^[9]

By that time, hip-hop had been around for a few years. DJ Kool Herc is typically credited with its invention at a block party in 1973. By 1977, he even had some competition, like Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. But it was still a small community. However, the next day after the blackout, “there were a thousand new DJs.” That’s according to hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Caz, who admitted to stealing a mixer that night. The same sentiment was echoed by Grandmaster Flash, hip-hop journalist Nelson George, and music scholar Joe Schloss. More recently, the subject was covered in the Netflix musical drama The Get Down.

1 The Piece Of Paper That Changed The Civil War

September 1862 started out grim for the Union Army during the US Civil War. Following the Confederacy’s stunning victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run, General Lee began his first invasion of the North in the Maryland Campaign. The French and British governments were preparing to recognize the independence of the Southern states. One great victory across the Potomac and then a magnanimous offer of peace was all that was needed for the Confederacy to accomplish its political goals.

Lee split up his army into several parts and identified multiple targets. He drew up marching orders known as Special Order 191. He sent a copy to each of his key commanders. Some burned their copies. Others kept them on their person. General James Longstreet chewed his copy with tobacco.^[10]

There was a bit of confusion with the orders for General Daniel Harvey Hill. Due to the recent unit division, Stonewall Jackson wasn’t sure if Hill still served under his command or reported directly to Lee. Therefore, he wrote another copy of Special Order 191 and sent it to him. Unbeknownst to him, so did General Lee.

On September 13, the Union army, led by George McClellan, set up camp on the outskirts of Frederick in an area previously occupied by Hill’s men. While resting, two soldiers found three cigars wrapped in a piece of paper. That paper was Special Order 191.

According to Hill, he only received the copy from Jackson. We’ll never know who exactly was responsible for the misplacement, but this priceless information helped the Union Army push the Confederates back south. Lee blamed the defeat of the Maryland Campaign unequivocally on the lost order. A few months later, the victory gave Lincoln the support necessary to announce the Emancipation Proclamation.

Have you ever had a conversation with your friends about an awesome film, TV show, or childhood cartoon? How often is the talk about the hero? About the torrid love affair or the “will they, won’t they?” between the two main characters? What about the most hateable villains or the funniest series regular? Pretty often, probably.

But we mustn’t forget that there are tons of small roles that can help elevate a scene, a film, or even a series to classic status. Even in some sucky IPs, there can be some small, memorable performance that sticks with the viewer. Here’s a list that shows appreciation for some of the more incidental characters that were elevated by the able actors who brought them to the screen.

Related: Top 10 ‘Star Wars’ Background Characters You Never Even Noticed

10 Mr. Treeger

TV Series: Friends (1994-2004)
Played by: Michael G Haggerty

Where would we be without your average working schlub? One thing is for certain, a whole building’s worth of rent-dodging, coffee-swilling, intra-dating, unfeasibly attractive twenty-somethings in the late ’90s/early ’00s would soon succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning or die under the rubble of their collapsed rent-controlled brownstone. Not so schlubby now, are they? One character given fairer treatment than most “working-class” archetypes in comedy is the superintendent of the building that the friends live in, Mr. Treeger.

He isn’t generically “street smart” or a simple “diamond in the rough” or any other patronizing stereotype. Treeger is just a working guy who knows his stuff and does his job. He can be tough and goofy, mean and kind, surly and have a tender side—the revelation that he enjoys ballroom dancing with Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani, his impromptu practice partner, is a surprisingly touching, decently written episode—”The One with the Ballroom Dancing.”^[1]

9 Wizard

Film: Taxi Driver (1976)
Played by: Peter Boyle

Now to a slightly less funny depiction of a working-class New Yorker.

Peter Boyle, known for his comic turns as “The Monster” in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein and as Ray Romano’s crotchety father in the beloved sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, puts in a great performance in this classic. He’s a regular guy, just a typical New York taxi driver, starkly contrasting against DeNiro’s warped, homicidal, deranged Vietnam vet cab driver.

When pressed to help with Travis Bickle’s growing unease at society and provide some real wisdom, he retreats into trite aphorisms, culminating in just telling the future rampage killer to “go out, get laid, get drunk, do anything” and that:

“We’re all f**ked. More or less, y’know.”

His character’s non-advice would have rendered him a 2D scene filler were it not for one line, perfectly delivered, that really underscores the visceral futility in the movie: “It’s not Bertrand Russell, but what do you want? I’m a cabbie, y’know? What do I know?” Boyle’s assured performance helps turn DeNiro’s iconic anti-hero from a cartoonish monster into the very embodiment of broken mental states and outsider rage at society.^[2]

8 Quaithe

TV Series: Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
Played by: Laura Pradelska

This is an interesting case of a character that was underrated by those writing the show she was in. in George RR Martin’s expansive fantasy universe, the character of Quaithe adds intrigue and a mystical air. She hails from the far-away city of Ashai, a place steeped in dark legends (a ghostly glowing river, mask-wearing denizens competent in forms of eldritch magic, the whole place built in the mysterious oily black stone—a motif inspired by the cosmic horror works of HP Lovecraft).

Quaithe shares visions and portents with the prospective queen of Westeros, Daenerys Targaryen, popping in and out of her life like a ghost. And that ghost-like quality may be fitting—not only does it denote a sense of otherworldliness, but it allows for speculation that she may be a long-lived relative from centuries past, a fallen Targaryen who knows what’s coming around the pike for her family.

Yeah, that’s not what we get in the show. She turns up, says some kooky stuff. And that was that.^[3]

7 Charmaine Bucco

TV Series: The Sopranos (1999-2007)
Played by: Kathrine Narducci

Characters like this are vital to create the audience introspection that classic TV series demand. And there is no greater classic than The Sopranos. Charmaine is wife to Artie Bucco, the chef and owner of Vesuvio. The restaurant is a regular haunt for the members of North Jersey’s Soprano crime family. Tony Soprano is Artie’s childhood best friend. He feels a constant draw into that world (but has nowhere near the street smarts or the hard edge required), constantly thinking of himself as an extension of that world. He lives vicariously enough through the ballbusting and the stories to even consider working with the mafiosos at certain junctures in the series.

But then there’s his wife. Katherine Narducci’s Charmaine is very Jersey. She’s very loud. Very expressive. And very much opposed to the criminal lifestyle of her main customers. Her wry, hostile attitude reminds her husband (and us) of exactly who these people are—charming, lovable, funny murderous thugs and pimps who kill as easily as they finish plates of gabagool.^[4]

6 Arthur Slugworth/Mr. Wilkinson

Film: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Played by: Günter Meisner

Beloved by millions as the film that defines their childhood, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory not only delighted children all over the world but also freaked them out to the point of persistent nightmares. The “Boat Trip” scene is enough on its own to cause nightly bed-wettings.

Worse still for the nervous systems of the pre-pubescent is the creepy owner of a competing chocolate company, Wonka’s arch-rival, Arthur Slugworth. He makes Charlie an offer, asking the boy to commit an act of industrial espionage (a mission Charlie refuses, thus allowing him to inherit the factory. Wonka orchestrates this whole ruse for, uh, reasons. Psychopathic reasons.) For all the kookiness and creepiness, all the whimsy and wonder, Slugworth helps ground a filmic vision that could have meandered off into “too-fuzzy-to-be-good” territory. German actor Günter Meisner brings some Teutonic steeliness to this faux antagonist, leaving weak-willed and naughty children in his wake like some corporate pied piper.^[5]

5 Éomer

Film: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
Played by: Karl Urban

Right, Tolkeinologists, in light of the upcoming nightmare that will drip from Bezos’s spite glands, let’s talk about an imperfect but much more faithful screen adaptation of J.R.R’s opus. Where would Middle Earth be if not for a comparatively unsung hero? In some pretty deep Mordorish crap, that’s where!

Éomer, Marshal of the Mark in the kingdom of Rohan, is the real martial brains behind the survival of the world of Men.

But the real sign of (movie) Éomer’s badassery comes in the scene where he warns the remaining members of the fellowship to leave Rohan, lest they succumb to the same fate as his King. Actor Karl Urban, on mounting his horse but before exuding pure loss with the line “Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope,” lets his sword slip from its scabbard. This unintended blooper only serves to add to his character’s hard edge. This dude doesn’t even need a sword (Seriously, watch the clip!).^[6]

4 Santos & Pasquel

TV Series: Family Guy (1999– )
Voiced by: Denis Martell & Mark Pasedes

Big characters sometimes come in small scenelets.

Take Santos and Pasquel, two throwaway characters that Peter Griffin hires to work on his fishing boat (remember that? Peter was a fisherman for a bit in the 3rd season). They were Portuguese. That’s how many humorless people perceived the gag. Non-English-speaking characters interact with monolingual American; we see the translation. Ha.

So…funny ‘cos they’re foreign, yes?

Not exactly. Their lives, expounded upon through their conversations, reveal a very different pair of men from how Peter perceives them. They are normal, intelligent guys. One was even a cardiologist back on the Iberian Peninsula. Now, due to the language barrier, they are forced into menial labor on an imbecile’s boat. That’s a lot of character complexity and arc spread across a few scenes and a clutch of lines.^[7]

3 Father Larry Duff

TV Series: Father Ted (1995-1998)
Played by: Tony Guilfoyle

If you are from the geographically larger, brasher, slightly more oil-rich side of the pond, you may very well never have heard of this Irish sitcom. Everyone in Ireland has. Hell, everyone in Britain has! Amid a whole slew of memorable guest spots, all actors portraying increasingly absurd, eccentric characters (mainly priests, all leveling wonderfully satirical jibes at late ’90s Irish culture), Father Larry Duff should get more love.

Used as a throwaway slapstick gag once every few episodes, this unlucky priest’s travails are hilarious. Every time he is in a high-risk situation, he gets a phone call from Ted, the eponymous protagonist of this sitcom. Every time Duff, played by Tony Guilfoyle, is called by Craggy Island’s resident priest, the call itself causes some violent mishap. Ted then realizes he’s been told not to call him for whatever reason, unknowingly having injured his friend. Simple but memorable.^[8]

2 The Bank Manager

Film: The Dark Knight (2008)
Played by: William Fichtner

How do you turn a run-of-the-mill, in-almost-every-crime-based-action-movie heist scene into a work of cinematic beauty? Add Heath Ledger’s Joker. How do you set the tone for what may still be the best (true) Superhero movie of the new millennium? Make sure your ancillary characters seem as 3D as possible.

What type of guy would be the manager of a bank that mainly does business with the mob? The baddest badass, that’s who. When he bursts out of his cubicle office in the palatial downtown Gotham bank building, riding the powder of his shotgun’s blast, the viewer gets the sense that the robbers have bitten off more than they can chew here. Only a new type of criminal could take on this mobbed-up, “old money” sort of guy.

Unfortunately for Gotham’s underworld, that’s exactly who the Joker is. Left with a mouthful of smoke-spewing explosives of some sort and let off with the severing of the Joker’s jacket thread, this scene not only sets the mood for the film but also for superhero blockbusters for the next few years. Smart and entertaining, the whole film would have suffered if not for the performance of this humble/sociopathic bank manager.^[9]

1 The Salesman

Film: Sin City (2005)
Played by: Josh Hartnett

As with the opening scene of The Dark Knight, 2005’s neo-noir adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic comic series Sin City has the quintessential mood-setting opening chapter. A dark cityscape lies beyond the rooftop of an American city. A beautiful woman in a ballgown strikes up a conversation with a tall, dark stranger as the score of doleful sax music sets the mood beyond the scene. He lights a cigarette for her. He tells her things about her that seem to reach deep into her soul. He makes her promises and reassures her that he can make her life better. He tells her he loves her.

He shoots her in the stomach. Then tells us that he’ll “cash her check in the morning.” Did she pay him, a last dramatic flight of fancy and some kind words before her life ends? Then the movie starts. Wow.

The only issue with this character, brought to life by a beautifully smooth turn by Hartnett, is that we don’t get to see this enigmatic character again until the very end of the movie.^[9]

And now for a bonus character!

+ Cravex

TV Series: Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987)
Voiced by: Chris Latta

A minor henchman antagonist from a cartoon? Why on earth would this screech-voiced, generic character make a list like this? I mean, how could the writing for a short-lived 1980s science fantasy, Hasbro-owned toy tie-in cartoon produce a good character?

One scene.

The scene that every person who has ever felt frustrated in a work meeting/classroom/waiting in line at customer service dreams about. After the show’s main antagonist, Darkstorm, refuses to share some of the plundered treasure with his fellow baddies, Cravex (member of the show’s evil faction, The Darkling Lords) just flips out. He smacks every other member of this gang of evildoers, castigating them based on their character flaws…except for Cindarr, who gets smacked just “out of principle!” This otherwise forgettable character shows us that even those with minimal personality can sometimes hit a nerve. All while viewers shout, “YES! Take that, Jeremy, you don’t even run the IT department, ya jerk!” at their screen.^[11]

When you go through minor surgery, there’s nothing major about it. Well, there is—surgery is surgery. But it should be routine, with minimal cuts, maybe a few stitches, and little to no organ rearranging. Most important, you should be able to walk out that outpatient door and recover at home. But sometimes, the best-laid surgery plans don’t go as expected. 

Whether it’s from medical malpractice, freak allergic reactions, or underlying conditions occasionally, people die during the most routine and minor procedures. Death is always a risk with surgery. Still, when it happens in these cases, it’s especially surprising. Here are the top 10 times people died during minor surgery.

10 Lidocaine Toxicity

The chance of dying from a local anesthetic is extremely rare, with less than a 1 in 100,000 chance. The local anesthetic in this story is lidocaine. Medical professionals use lidocaine for a variety of procedures, from trigger point injections to dental reconstructions. It is generally safe, but for a select unlucky few, it can be deadly. Chances of death increase if the doctor administering the local anesthetic makes a mistake.

This was the case for a five-year-old girl in 2011. Kensley Kirby’s parents took her to Family Medical Clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, after falling and suffering a broken arm. The doctor administered a lidocaine numbing shot while setting her arm, but she did not react well to it. The dosage was fatal. With a broken bone, her body absorbed the nerve blocker quickly. Investigators speculated that the doctor who administered the shot was used to working on adults, not young children. That’s still no excuse for someone who knows better than not to adjust the dosage for a little girl.

9 Therapeutic Complications

On September 4, 2014, comedian and fashion critic Joan Rivers died from therapeutic complications of a routine endoscopy. Therapeutic complications are predictable outcomes of therapy or procedure. 

While under anesthesia, her vocal cords went into spasm, which blocked oxygen from her brain. Because her throat swelled, doctors couldn’t insert a breathing tube in time, resulting in brain damage and respiratory failure. Her heart went into arrhythmia—irregular heartbeat—and eventually stopped beating. Although it’s a terribly tragic way to go, heart and respiratory failure—and ultimately brain damage—are rare side effects of anesthesia. 

The flip side to Joan’s death is that it may not have been entirely the fault of her spasming vocal cords. The doctors conducting the procedure were investigated for malpractice. Besides taking a selfie with Joan (while she was under anesthesia), they had also performed a laryngoscopy, something Joan had not agreed to. The timeline of events also shows that doctors could have avoided Joan’s death had they realized her blood pressure and pulse were dropping earlier on.

8 Andy’s Gallbladder

Pop art pioneer and cultural icon Andy Warhol led a fantastical Manhattan lifestyle, even making a few enemies along the way. In 1968, radical author and artist Valerie Solanas marched to Warhol’s office and shot him twice. The bullets wrecked his organs, including his lungs, and it wasn’t clear whether or not he would survive. He even died at the hospital while they were working on repairs. But survive he did! You would think surviving a gunshot wound like that would get you the pass in any other life-threatening situations—but that wasn’t the case.

What used to be labeled a “routine” gallbladder surgery by the media is what ultimately killed Warhol. It was not routine, at least, not in Warhol’s case. The stress of the recovery, his sustained injuries from the gunshot wounds, a healthy dose of speed every day, and a prolonged sickness were just way too much for his heart. Though he made it through the surgery, he didn’t make it out of the hospital.

7 Danger at the Dentist’s Office

Nitrous oxide is a safe alternative to pain and anti-anxiety medication during outpatient surgeries. However, if used incorrectly, it could prove to be fatal. In another case of a medical professional not knowing when enough is enough, a young child died due to lack of oxygen during a dental procedure. The boy reportedly had behavioral issues and the surgery to remove four decaying teeth would be painful. When he wasn’t responding to the nitrous oxide, the doctor increased the amount of sedative he used. 

6 Lack of Wisdom

That isn’t the only incident of a young person suffering the worst complications anesthesia can cause. A 17-year-old girl suffered a heart attack during a routine wisdom teeth extraction surgery. Though the doctor eventually revived her and got her to a hospital, she was declared brain dead a week after the surgery. The family sued for malpractice, arguing that there should have been better monitoring and emergency response. There was also evidence that an uncertified dental assistant was partially to blame for the oversight. The family received a $2 million settlement, but no money is enough to make up for the loss of their daughter.

5 Mommy Makeover

A 38-year-old mother of two was on vacation with her family in Tijuana. While there, she decided to travel to Mexico with two other friends and treat herself to a “mommy makeover.” The tummy tuck ended up a fatal decision. Sadly, she experienced blood clotting during the procedure and suffered a heart attack. Even after 45 minutes of CPR, the medical team could not revive her. The two other women developed terrible complications. 

Most plastic surgery these days is considered outpatient, or ambulatory, surgery. Meaning a patient can arrive in the morning and be recovered enough to leave (with assistance, of course) the same day. Still, it is expensive. The cost of these procedures has increased medical tourism. In medical tourism, people seek out “certified” plastic surgeons in other countries. These surgeons usually charge a fraction of the price they would pay in the US and promise the same results. The issue is that you risk quality, hygiene, and your life with potentially deceptive ads and medical malpractice.

It seems it’s best to invest in a certified doctor or not get plastic surgery at all.

4 Bleach in the Line

Not all deaths during medical procedures are accidental. Back in 2012, a Texas nurse, Kimberly Clark Saenz, was arrested and sentenced to the death penalty for murdering dialysis patients during their treatments. People who suffer from chronic kidney disease rely on dialysis to filter and clean their blood, as their kidneys cannot. That said, dialysis patients put a lot of trust into the facility they go to for treatment and one misstep by dialysis technicians could mean some serious health consequences. 

Saenz did not care.

In 2008, about a year after Saenz started working at the dialysis center, administrators noticed that more and more patients were falling ill and suffering from cardiac arrest during treatments. In an effort to reduce these numbers, the facility made some staff changes and rearranged nurses. Saenz was reassigned as a patient care technician. Later that day, two patients saw her inject a bleach solution into the IV lines and reported her. She was ultimately fired and an investigation was opened to look into her contact with patients.

Of the five patients who had died that year, all had come into direct contact with Saenz. She was in-saenz.

3 da Vinci Robot

The medical profession has advanced by leaps and bounds in its practices and surgical equipment. What was once considered major, “open you up” surgery, doctors can now do through smaller incisions. They can perform cardiac oblations by threading tools up the femoral artery; they can remove your gallbladder with two small incisions. In gynecology, new technology even helps surgeons perform hysterectomies (the removal of the uterus) similarly. Oh, and you can get a robot to help you out, too. 

The da Vinci is that robot! The positives: it’s a minimally invasive surgical tool and patients may end up experiencing fewer complications from their surgery. The negatives: it’s still fairly new technology, and doctors only receive one day’s worth of formal training with it. Unfortunately, one little slip of the robot and technological celebration could turn into a technological tragedy.

In 2012, the da Vinci made a major slip up. As a result, a woman died during her robot-assisted hysterectomy. The robot’s arm nicked a blood vessel. This isn’t the only incident involving one of these machines, but it is certainly the most tragic.

2 Fat Cells

This plastic surgery death differs from the others on this list because the patient didn’t look for a cheap alternative. Traveling to Miami, Florida, from New York, the 46-year-old transgender woman found a clinic specializing in Brazillian butt lifts. She was scheduled to have a completely routine Brazilian butt-lift surgery. Nothing more. 

The catch is that as routine as the surgery is, they pose a greater risk than other plastic surgeries. When a surgeon injects fat below the gluteal muscles—your butt muscles—the needle can accidentally penetrate the gluteal vein. This caused the fat to enter the bloodstream, leading to major complications and heart and lung failure. Over the past decade, at least 20 people in Miami alone have died from the surgery. 

Unfortunately, in this case, that’s what happened to the beloved New Yorker. Her oxygen and heart rate dropped while on the table, the doctor couldn’t resuscitate her, and she was declared dead at the hospital. Her death was ruled accidental.

1 A Repeat Offender

People may not see labor as surgery because it is so routine, procedural, and oftentimes rewarding. But there are certainly obvious surgical aspects to the process, especially when it comes to C-sections, which is a surgery. 

Every labor is slightly different, of course, but there is protocol for almost every situation. Yet this guy, this guy right here—Dr. (or soon-to-be-former Dr.) Dmitry Shelchkov—decided not to follow protocol. Imagine being the reason why a child grows up without their mother. That’s Shelchkov.

Back in 2020, Shelchkov was directly responsible for the death of a 26-year-old mother from Brooklyn Sha-Asia Washington. During her C-section, he failed to give her oxygen after experiencing breathing difficulties. After he had given her an epidural, he administered additional medication. Want to guess what it was? Fentanyl. It was fentanyl. This was when Shelchkov didn’t give her enough oxygen. 

She became unresponsive, without a pulse, two minutes later. She continued to suffer a string of cardiac arrests until she passed away later that night.

Shelchkov has been tied to eight other malpractice incidents, including not giving anesthesia to another C-section patient. His medical license is currently suspended.
 

Whether it’s getting a scrape on the knee from a rough game of football (soccer, if you prefer) or rolling your ankle in heels, we’ve all experienced these small injuries occasionally and have bounced back from them. However, there are cases where seemingly small incidents have spiraled out of control, resulting in unbelievable consequences such as being trapped in a coma for months, requiring multiple skin grafts, or even death.

10 Heather Harbottle: Paper Cut Ends with a Skin Graft

This 49-year-old mother had a close brush with death in 2020 when she contracted a flesh-eating bug through an uncovered paper-cut wound. She never expected such a small inconvenience to develop into necrotizing fasciitis—a disease that destroys the skin, muscle, and surrounding soft tissues. It first started on her left hand, where the paper cut was found, and rapidly traveled to her armpits and heart. Consequently, she was quickly driven to the hospital and luckily missed a near amputation of her arm as the doctors opted to give her a skin graft instead.^[1]

9 Michael Berger: Another Paper Cut Turns Septic

Another terrifying instance where the relatively minor paper cut led to much more ominous complications is when 46-year-old Michael Berger from New Jersey fell into a three-week medically-induced coma as a result of sepsis. This is a toxic response to an infection that is likely to lead to organ failure. This response was triggered by the cut on his finger that had become infected and spread across his entire body. Doctors had given him a 50% chance of survival rate. Fortunately, he was placed in the hospital’s nationally recognized Sepsis Program. As a result of that, he is still with us today.^[2]

8 Bobby Leach: Orange Peel Causes Gangrene

This next takes us all the way back to 1926. Bobby Leach was touring in New Zealand, and his relatively relaxing trip was cut short when he fatally slipped on an orange peel and injured his leg. Although he quickly brushed off this injury, his leg soon became infected, and the infection turned into gangrene. Due to the lack of advanced hospital treatment at that time, amputation was the only solution to his problem. However, he would never recover from his injuries and died shortly afterward. Even more bizarre, Leach was only the second person to travel down Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel, yet it was a simple fruit skin that led to his demise!^[3]

7 Callum Jones: Sprained Ankle Causes Fatal Blood Clot

In October 2021, 27-year-old Callum Jones was peacefully walking his dog when he sprained his ankle by slipping on a wooden bridge. As his pain began to worsen, he was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured ankle. He had his foot placed in a protective plastic boot and was given a pair of crutches. When he went back for a follow-up appointment, he was told he had badly-sprained ligaments and tendons.

Just two days later, he found it hard to breathe normally and had aching pains in his shoulders and chest. He spoke with his local doctor over a telephone call and was only diagnosed with pleuritis—a condition that affects the lungs and causes chest pains. Soon, Jones collapsed inside of his house and was immediately rushed to a hospital, where he died of pulmonary embolism, which was a blocked blood vessel in his lungs. This was a direct result of the immobility caused by the damage to the ligament.^[4]

6 Alex Braes: Broken Toenail Causes a “Skin-Eating Disease”

This 18-year-old teenager from New South Wales woke up one night with excruciating pains in his knees. Alex Braes was rushed to the hospital by his father, but doctors assumed his pains were due to sporting injuries and advised him to come back the next morning for an ultrasound scan. However, when the pair arrived at 8 am, there were no doctors available to check the results of the procedure, and none of his vitals were examined.

After Braes returned home, his knees had become unbearably painful, so he called triple zero (the same as 911 in America). Unfortunately, there were no ambulances available, so his father had to drive him to the hospital again. When he arrived, he was taken into the building in a wheelchair, and he only appeared semi-conscious and was unable to talk coherently. Doctors then discovered that he had necrotizing fasciitis—the deadly “skin-eating” disease previously mentioned. This was caused by a broken toenail and proved fatal for this young teenager. Although Alex Braes was rushed to Sydney hospital by helicopter, he would sadly die of cardiac arrest the following day.^[5]

5 Harry Houdini: The Few Blows That Killed the Famous Stunt Performer

As one of the most famous and revered magicians and escape artists of the 20th century, Houdini was no stranger to escaping risky situations. However, at the age of 52, Houdini would perform for one last time on stage before dying of two hard blows to his stomach. Twelve days before his death on October 31, 1926, Houdini spoke to a group of students. He boasted about the strength of his abdominal muscles and mentioned that they could withstand hard punches. One of the curious students decided to test this theory and, by doing so, suddenly threw three or four hard punches at Houdini’s stomach.

Despite not having sufficient time to prepare for these blows, Houdini shrugged the pain off and even went on stage to give his last performance. Unbeknownst to Houdini, the punches actually ruptured his appendix. But at that time, he felt no majorly concerning symptoms besides stomach cramps and discomfort. Only when he fell ill and feverish on the train to Detroit did he realize something was seriously wrong. He was quickly hospitalized, and doctors operated on him… but to no avail. The burst appendix had poisoned his body, and he soon died.^[6]

4 Keith Clarke: Stubbed Toe Led to Organ Failure

Although we’ve all annoyingly stubbed our toe on an inconspicuous object, it proved fatal for 59-year-old father-of-two Keith Clarke. He went swimming in a simulated coral reef pool while on holiday in Florida. Clumps of rocks were placed all around the pool, and they had living coral implanted inside them. Clarke accidentally stubbed his toe on one of the pieces and thought nothing more of it until three days later when he collapsed in an airport on his way back to Manchester. He was immediately rushed to Central Florida Regional Hospital and was diagnosed with septic shock and organ failure. On July 2, he was flown back to England in an air ambulance, and doctors were forced to amputate his legs below the knee, but it was already too late. Clarke would die of multiple organ failure caused by a bloodstream infection just eight weeks after he stubbed his toe.^[7]

3 Brittanie Cecil: Flying Hockey Puck Proves Fatal

On March 16, 2002, Brittanie Cecil attended an NHL hockey match as her father bought tickets to them for her as an early birthday present. However, this trip would prove to be fatal as one of the players struck a routine slap shot that resulted in the puck being deflected off an opponent’s stick. It flew into the lower bowl seats of the ice rink and struck Cecil in the head, just above the nose. She was taken to the hospital, and during that time, she appeared conscious and seemed to recover the next day.

A CT scan that was performed on her, however, failed to pick up a torn vertebral artery which resulted in clotting and swelling of the brain. Forty-eight hours later, Cecil would die on March 18—only two days before she was to turn 14. As a result of this shocking and tragic death, safety netting was placed around the NHL arena, and Cecil currently remains the only fan fatality in NHL history.^[8]

2 Jasmine Beever: Hairball in Stomach Ends in Death

In 2017, 16-year-old student Jasmine Beever collapsed at her college and was sent home to rest. When large and mysterious red blotches appeared on her skin, she was rushed to the hospital, and doctors soon had to fight to keep her alive. Although they managed to resuscitate her for 15 minutes, Beever would sadly die that evening.

The cause of her death was found to be an infection caused by a hairball lodged in her stomach. A post-mortem examination revealed she had contracted peritonitis—an inflammation of the thin layer of tissue on the abdomen. For years, Beever had been chewing on her hair, which was likely a sign of “Rapunzel syndrome.” As a result, a large hairball had been unable to pass through her body and had accumulated inside her stomach.^[9]

1 Sam Ballard: Slug Swallowed Ends Up Causing Paralysis

In 2010, Sam Ballard, a 19-year-old from Sydney, Australia, was drinking over at a friend’s house when a slug began crawling over the concrete patio. A group of his friends all dared him to pick up the slug and eat it, and he did so. No one could have expected this seemingly harmless albeit gross action would turn out with a lethal end.

Despite this, Ballard initially felt fine. However, a few days after consuming the slug, he began to fall ill, felt extremely weak, and had severe pains in both of his legs. Although multiple sclerosis was first suspected to be the cause, due to his father having been diagnosed with it already, doctors informed him and his family that it was a rat lungworm disease that had been passed on to him from the infected slug. This disease was in the form of a parasite, and when it reached the brain, it would cause inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

Despite most cases of rat lungworm infection being mild and treatable, Ballard’s proved to have no cure. Soon after his diagnosis, Ballard fell into a coma and remained there for 420 days. He woke up paralyzed and was fed through a tube as he could not move without extensive effort. After suffering eight years of this debilitating condition, Sam Ballard passed away in 2018 due to medical complications.^[10]