The memory of World Wars I and II continues to produce unusual incidents. In the early hours of January 1, Rangueil Hospital in Toulouse had to mobilize personnel from various medical and military disciplines to resolve an out-of-the-ordinary medical situation.
A 24-year-old man reported to the emergency room complaining of severe rectal pain. When questioned about the cause of his discomfort, he admitted to inserting an object, without specifying what it was. The pain was too intense to ignore. But he failed to provide some crucial details. The medical staff proceeded to operate, as is standard procedure in similar cases where some kind of sexual activity leads to such an unpredictable situation. The problem arose when they began removing the unidentified object: they discovered it was a relatively small World War I shell, measuring about 20 centimeters long and just over three centimeters in diameter.
Medical staff had to halt the procedure, fearing a possible explosion. The hospital, unfamiliar with such protocols, immediately alerted the authorities, and around 1:40 a.m., police arrived and activated the bomb squad. The team established a security perimeter to neutralize the device so surgery could continue, though no one knew at that stage if the entire operation could blow up at any moment.
Initial checks, however, concluded that the shell dated from 1918, the final year of World War I, and posed no risk. Once the tension subsided, the officers notified the Judicial Support Group (GAJ), which “opened proceedings for possession of Category A ammunition,” according to Dépêche, the newspaper that broke the story of this unusual case. The “possession” referred to in the complaint, in this instance, could be considered rather relative, but as the same newspaper reported, a source close to the case confirmed that the patient will be “interviewed in the coming days to explain the origin of the shell.” The Toulouse prosecutor’s office will not pursue the case because it involves demilitarized ammunition.
The most surprising aspect of the case, however, is that this isn’t the first time someone has shown up at a hospital with an explosive projectile lodged in their rectum. In 2022, in Toulon, an 88-year-old man arrived at the hospital with a similar shell in the same location. There was another case in the UK in 2021, although on that occasion the object was somewhat more modern, dating back to World War II.
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