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The Day We Made Frankenstein’s Monster

When Everett Knowles hitched a ride on a Boston train, he expected to make it home in a few minutes. But the result was the final leg of a medical history journey more than 30,000 years in the making when Eddy Knowles’ doctors turned tragedy into a medical miracle. The path from accident to surgery…

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When Everett Knowles hitched a ride on a Boston train, he expected to make it home in a few minutes. But the result was the final leg of a medical history journey more than 30,000 years in the making when Eddy Knowles’ doctors turned tragedy into a medical miracle.

The path from accident to surgery required an almost impossible set of conditions to line up perfectly, and then it actually had to work. On the day of the accident, the wild scramble to harness expertise and to weigh calculated risks make for an engaging story of science and human ingenuity — but the truth is that the same exact process of discovery and daring is what forged the centuries of scientific knowledge that Eddy’s doctors used to save his arm.

Scientific triumphs and medical miracles happen every day. They just take thousands of generations to be born.

#medical #history #science #popularscience

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65 Comments

65 Comments

  1. @MoeEpsilon

    April 22, 2024 at 3:51 pm

    Hello, I’m view #1.

    • @icedbun101

      April 22, 2024 at 4:20 pm

      I’m view #253

    • @AnglophobiaIsevil7

      April 22, 2024 at 4:37 pm

      Very cool.
      Here is your internet cookie

      🍪

      DO NOT SHARE IT WITH #2 OR #3. they are LOOSERS. LOOSERS must suffer the loss !!!

  2. @mattmatyas9605

    April 22, 2024 at 4:17 pm

    What happened to VSAUCE

    • @EyesOfByes

      April 22, 2024 at 4:30 pm

      Michael here.

    • @Ajax_Kennedy

      April 22, 2024 at 4:33 pm

      I have a theory:
      Micheal originally started the channel as a job, it was supposed to be a gaming channel, that fell through after a while. (That part is fact)
      My theory is that Michael had originally intended to use the channel as a springboard to get into mainstream media, but as the channel grew larger the closest opportunity he ever got was Mind Field (which was sponsored by youtube as a part of the YouTube Red experiment, also it was shot and edited like a discovery channel show) and Mind Field was canceled by YouTube when Red fell through. I don’t think he ever sought out becoming a science communicator, I think he just used science communicator as his way of exposing himself to different platforms.
      But that’s just my theory.

    • @AnglophobiaIsevil7

      April 22, 2024 at 4:44 pm

      I’m afraid he didn’t make it. I’m so sorry for your loss.

  3. @stechun8583

    April 22, 2024 at 4:18 pm

    Immediately improved my mood seeing a clip from YuYu Hakusho being used in the background

  4. @paradox_himself

    April 22, 2024 at 4:34 pm

    The fact that all the doctors, surgeons and nurses knew that the conditions were perfect and decided to perform the first surgery of its kind is mind boggling to think about. I can just imagine them seeing the state of the arm, looking at each other and being like “Team, it’s showtime”

  5. @AnglophobiaIsevil7

    April 22, 2024 at 4:36 pm

    This is simply so cool. Wow!

  6. @amsie02

    April 22, 2024 at 4:39 pm

    great video

  7. @jerrylim6722

    April 22, 2024 at 4:42 pm

    to summarize this whole story in a meme-ish modern headline, it’d be something like “Boy loses arm at age 12, becomes man with authentic crustacean style dexterity.”
    as literally just like a crab, he has one power arm and one precision arm.

  8. @EyesOfByes

    April 22, 2024 at 4:55 pm

    Perfect storytelling!

  9. @AGirlNamedNix

    April 22, 2024 at 5:00 pm

    Kevin’s focus on the utter impossibility of what he’s saying without discrediting the human elements required to make it all happen the exact way that it does…it reminds me of how close I’ve come to not being here. But I still am. I’m still here because some guy decided that pushing on a chest a certain way is a thing to do. Because someone realized that electric energy effects living tissue. Because someone mixed some chemicals for whatever reason. Because people mucked around, studied, tried, failed, and died to develop CPR, defibrillation, and medication.

    Today might not be the perfect day. But through a cascading string of impossibility brought about by humans never giving up, I’m here to see it.

    And that’s truly beautiful.

  10. @vidal9747

    April 22, 2024 at 7:05 pm

    It is mind blowing how nowadays I just hear in the news that you should always bring amputated members to the hospital, if possible in ice to try reattaching them. It is just something they commonly do in hospitals nowadays.

    • @matissemaaskant2383

      April 22, 2024 at 7:44 pm

      a friend of mine got her ring finger cut off just after her wedding and got it reattached a few hours later like it was nothing

  11. @lastnamefirstname8655

    April 22, 2024 at 7:08 pm

    amazing scary story.

  12. @danthelatch

    April 22, 2024 at 7:13 pm

    Blatant Red Sox propaganda

  13. @jonnda

    April 22, 2024 at 7:16 pm

    Forgot one: “If eddy’s parents didn’t have enough medical insurance”

  14. @WhiteNucklin

    April 22, 2024 at 7:28 pm

    Bro has stepped his game up

  15. @Yourmission9

    April 22, 2024 at 8:14 pm

    This was incredible, I never knew the origin story of sewing one’s appendages back on but now I do. Hence the reason I’m a subscriber of this channel!

  16. @yukimoe

    April 22, 2024 at 8:15 pm

    Astar the robot from the war amputees PSA in Canada: I can put my arm back on, but you can’t
    Eddy Knowles: how about I do anyway

  17. @curtisnewton895

    April 22, 2024 at 8:42 pm

    are you paid to be such a fucking drama queen?

  18. @dolcelattice4958

    April 22, 2024 at 8:58 pm

    that’s all well and good, but what happened to Screamer?

    • @chrismitchell9338

      April 22, 2024 at 11:25 pm

      Still talk to the guitarist from time to time.

  19. @Warhawk76

    April 22, 2024 at 9:00 pm

    Such an awesome story!

  20. @shayd1

    April 22, 2024 at 10:25 pm

    This makes me wonder what the equivalent emergency situation would be with today’s medical knowledge and technology. My guess is that there is no modern equivalent though I did fail med school by never once applying or even thinking about it so I will defer to strangers online instead.

  21. @chrismitchell9338

    April 22, 2024 at 11:25 pm

    I live in Kenosha. Know the guitarist from Screamer.

  22. @-lijosu-

    April 23, 2024 at 1:12 am

    “Because when you get in a train accident you just get up and stroll back home”. – I mean. Even in the 60s, he was a kid. I’d wager that was all he knew to do as well.

  23. @werdwerdus

    April 23, 2024 at 2:00 am

    maybe it’s just my TV but there is a lot of odd strobing/flashing effects in some of the shots in this video. might be worthwhile to add a photosensitivity warning

  24. @UptownBoogieDown

    April 23, 2024 at 2:53 am

    Brilliant video

  25. @seatbelttruck

    April 23, 2024 at 3:49 am

    Didn’t expect a science video about limb reattachment to make me tear up a little at the end…

  26. @minacapella8319

    April 23, 2024 at 3:58 am

    This is… so many levels of miraculous. Both for our boy who survived and got his arm mostly back, but for all of modern medicine. And seriously, he went home after THREE WEEKS from the first ARM REATTACHMENT surgery, somewhat before we had a lot of the breakthroughs we currently have for inpatient or outpatient care and recovery, physical therapy, rehab, etc.? And he was PLAYING BASEBALL AND WORKING ON CARS and managed to go until his 60s? Just, so much luck aligning in just the right way.

  27. @PrinceAlhorian

    April 23, 2024 at 5:24 am

    A miracle is something that by all reason should not be able to happen, but then due to a seeming coincidental series of events and people, happen anyway.
    The Apollo project lands men on the moon with science and machines mostly hand designed and built. The Mets making history in 1969 becoming the first expansion team to win a division title, a pennant, and the World Series. The Berlin Wall coming down due to a slip of the tongue, causing the collapse of the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War… And Eddie Spaghetti keeping his right arm.

  28. @Otacon2099

    April 23, 2024 at 6:30 am

    So, How many hands does it take to reattach a hand?

  29. @forbiddenera

    April 23, 2024 at 9:21 am

    2:54 and a kid just fell off a train in Toronto and everyone is blaming social media like kids never hopped on trains before 😮

  30. @RobinMarks1313

    April 23, 2024 at 11:07 am

    There is debate over the missing fingers cave paintings. The fingers might not be missing but rather, the fingers are bent under into the hand. It’s just like the missing finger trick we all can do by bending our fingers down and attaching the other finger from the other hand to create an illusion. The cave paintings are not proof of missing digits. But I’m sure cavepeople lost fingers a lot due to accidents or even fighting with each other. I could see one caveperson biting off another caveperson’s fingers.

  31. @jboveda

    April 23, 2024 at 11:41 am

    Kevin is absolutely SLAYING on this channel

  32. @SwampyColorado420

    April 23, 2024 at 12:21 pm

    Yikes. I could never hack it as a doc.

    • @andywest5773

      May 11, 2024 at 5:58 am

      Hacking it is easy. Surgically reattaching it is another story.

  33. @johnwhitaker545

    April 23, 2024 at 3:09 pm

    I had to stop at the end ‘cause you’re gonna make me cry

  34. @jonjones2536

    April 23, 2024 at 3:52 pm

    Are you guys blind. This is not Kevin. This is ai deepfake

  35. @PaulsPubAndBrew

    April 23, 2024 at 6:36 pm

    I can’t fathom how surgeons do this. I get squeamish just hearing the description of what happened.

  36. @monad_tcp

    April 23, 2024 at 9:41 pm

    2:50 not different than today, kids can get away with everything as long as they’re making a video for tiktok

  37. @monad_tcp

    April 23, 2024 at 9:44 pm

    5:22 as one would expect from a medic professional, not panic

  38. @unmanaged

    April 23, 2024 at 10:35 pm

    damit dude. this might be the deepest video ive ever seen you make… keep up the good work….

  39. @knpark2025

    April 24, 2024 at 8:38 am

    I suppose the African proverb is spot on. *You need the whole town to raise a child.*

    • @andywest5773

      May 11, 2024 at 5:54 am

      I think what you mean to say is you need the town to raise a whole child.

    • @knpark2025

      May 30, 2024 at 7:08 am

      @@andywest5773 good one lol

  40. @galeng73

    April 24, 2024 at 4:13 pm

    I’ve had major surgery on my important bone bits, a couple actually.

    This made me cringe.

  41. @SuperUTubeLogin

    April 25, 2024 at 10:54 am

    I absolutely love your videos. This was super fantastic. Thank you so much.

  42. @paul6925

    April 25, 2024 at 8:57 pm

    Kid sounds braver than I was when my lower leg got cracked in half when a car smashed into me. Still have the steel rod in there! Thank you Kingston General Hospital 🙏

  43. @SciMinute

    April 26, 2024 at 1:28 pm

    Great storytelling! 👍

  44. @DustinRodriguez1_0

    April 26, 2024 at 3:44 pm

    In addition to being a remarkable medical advancement, this story is also a great example of how critical a good sense of community can be for kids in dangerous situations. If he’d been raised on a mantra of ‘stranger danger’ and hadn’t talked to the stranger who asked him what was wrong, he might not have even made it home alive. Same on the side of the man, if he was worried people might assume some malign motive from talking to a random boy walking nearby and hadn’t said anything. Because they didn’t have that ambient fear that modern communication tech combined with the natural human lack of a capacity to judge risks accurately has created, this entire local community came to this boys aid. He sounds like he lived as a valued member of his community from beginning to end, a really beautiful human story.

  45. @josue1996jc

    May 1, 2024 at 8:44 pm

    as a medicine student this kind of hisotries makes me so exited, my dad himself is a plastic surgeon that has saved many limbs and as a kid i remember beeing amazed by his stories of how he does it.

  46. @Absbor

    May 9, 2024 at 3:31 pm

    this is amazing

  47. @andywest5773

    May 11, 2024 at 5:48 am

    Those who understand statistics call it the law of truly large numbers, because that’s what it is.

  48. @kujojotarostandoceanman2641

    May 12, 2024 at 11:44 am

    the hospital really goes “nah I’d win”

  49. @DobraEspacial

    May 16, 2024 at 11:17 am

    These videos are so freaking good. Perfect storytelling, Kevin!

  50. @I.____.....__...__

    May 16, 2024 at 3:10 pm

    21:18 Yes, countless variables came together in just the right way to lead to that result, otherwise he’d have had one arm or died or never have been injured in the first place. But that’s true of EVERYTHING. Near-infinite variables led to his birth in the first place. The same goes for everyone who ever existed. This isn’t special. It’s not a miracle. It’s just the timeline that played out. Think of the countless number of things that have, or more to the point, have NOT occurred. This is just how it is. 🤷

  51. @felino86

    May 16, 2024 at 5:44 pm

    A mindblowing story. The final wrap-up really puts everything into perspective. Thanks for a great episode ❤

  52. @diyeana

    May 18, 2024 at 8:45 pm

    I’m not crying, you’re crying! 🥲

    I call it, “Beautiful.”

  53. @scottmccluremcclure3916

    May 24, 2024 at 1:33 pm

    Jesus was holding his hand.

  54. @eudesgeoffroy8416

    June 11, 2024 at 5:04 am

    Nowadays it’s just named an actress. Everything is artificial, boobs, butt, lips, the intelligence is barely there but it moves.

  55. @purelaziness7095

    July 12, 2024 at 12:03 pm

    so fascinating! thanks for shining a light on this story. this shit is right up my alley

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