There are few things as terrifying as walking into the hospital with a rare disease or unknown growth. That was precisely what happened to one Chicagoan who disregarded advice to sanitize anything you put near your face.
A 23-year-old construction worker paid a visit to his doctor after a mystery fungus appeared near his mouth. He had developed a rare festering fungal lesion after he snipped a pimple with a woodworking blade, according to The Journal of Emergency Medicine. Yes, you read that correctly: he popped a pimple with an unsanitized carpentry tool.
After popping the zit, the infection slowly expanded and grew more painful day-by-day for seven months. The doctors described the budding yeast-filled legion which spread beneath his lower lip as "a large, heme-crusted, verrucous, erythematous plaque with a rolled, indurated border on the lower vermillion and cutaneous lips." The infection is called Blastomyces dermatitidis and only 50 cases have been recorded as noted by, Ars Technica. In layman’s terms, it’s pretty gross. What resulted is the worst fear for any human who has ever popped a zit and subsequently been scolded about the possibility of infection from a dermatologist (or your mother). You can see images here.
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If you’re asking why it took him so long to seek out a medical professional, that is anyone’s guess. According to the Census Bureau, Americans are visiting the doctor much less frequently in recent years. It more than likely appeared as an unsightly cold sore, at one point. He also reportedly had none of the symptoms common with an infection of this nature: no fever, no chills, no headaches, and no weight loss.
The construction worker’s pimple snip wasn’t a chance encounter while handling carpentry blades. It was deliberate. All of that said, now might be a good time to remind everyone that if you must pop a pimple, leave it to the professionals. Or, at the very least, sanitize, sanitize, sanitize.
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