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There are quite a lot of nasty ways that people can meet their demise, and despite all the things we know about death, there are some incredibly strange and statistically improbable ways that some people have died.
Whether it’s diseases or simply freak accidents, click through the following gallery to discover some of the rarest causes of death in history.
Stone man disease, medically known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, is an incredibly painful genetic disorder that causes muscles and tendons in a person’s body to progressively turn into bone. Only one person in two million are diagnosed with this disease, and it often leads to early mortality.
Although many people have a reasonable fear of perishing in a plane crash, we can assure you that it is actually one of the rarest causes of death in the world. In fact, the odds of dying in an aircraft because of a crash or malfunction is only one in 29.4 million.
There are some pretty strange causes of death out there, but dying on the toilet is certainly one of the strangest ones! While straining to defecate, one in a few million people sometimes experience a rapid drop in blood pressure that can cause them to pass out and injure themselves.
According to ancient mythology, the Greek philosopher Chrysippus died of laughter after witnessing a donkey eating a fig. Interestingly, this type of death is not impossible, albeit extremely rare. Laughing too much can cause a brain aneurysm or even result in asphyxiation.
In 2011, a man in the UK woke up in bed to find his partner had shockingly suffocated and died overnight. During an investigation, it was determined that the man, who was rather large in size, had rolled over in his sleep and accidentally suffocated his partner with his weight. This remains one of the rarest causes of accidental death to date.
Although this addition to the list is less involuntary than the other causes of death featured here, it still deserves a mention. Statistics show that between three and four US citizens die annually after being crushed by vending machines, which are typically the result of victims attempting to rock the machines so that they can obtain free items or dislodge change.
Stiff person syndrome is a rather intense neurological disorder that causes severe muscle stiffness and painful spasms that only worsen over time. The disease itself doesn’t really kill people, but it can cause victims to fall or suffer from fatal respiratory issues.
Although dying at someone else’s funeral often involves a heart attack or a car accident in the funeral procession, being crushed by a coffin is truly rare! There have been very few reported cases of pallbearers dying under the weight of a coffin, but it is certainly not impossible.
Fields condition is classified as the rarest disease on the planet, with only two known cases. The condition was named after a pair of twins who experienced rapid muscle degradation from a very young age. Not much is known about the disease.
Only about 400 people in the world have this disease, and it only affects children. HGPS is a genetic condition where children age rapidly because their cells die prematurely, and they suffer from joint pains and cardiovascular diseases in the same way that old people do. Tragically, they don’t typically survive past the age of 14.
While drowning is certainly one of the most common causes of death in the world, drowning in a beer flood is not! But on October 17, 1814, several large beer barrels at Horseshoe Brewery in London burst open, causing up to 388,000 US gallons (323,000 imperial gallons) of beer to flood a nearby slum. The disaster caused the deaths of six people, and is the only recorded instance of drowning via a beer flood.
Toxic epidermal necrolysis is a disorder that causes a severe skin reaction often triggered by medications. People with this disorder usually look as though they are suffering from severe burns, and, if left untreated, the disorder could result in mortality.
There has only been one recorded case in history of a death related to carrot juice, which comes from a British man in 1974. The man, 48-year-old Basil Brown, was addicted to carrot juice and habitually consumed multiple gallons every day before it eventually proved fatal. His death was attributed to liver failure resulting from an overdose of vitamin A.
This may come as a surprise, but it is possible to die from drinking too much water, although it is quite rare. Overconsumption of water can cause the sodium levels in the body to drop too low, or cause a fatal buildup of fluid in the brain, which is known as a cerebral edema.
This is another incredibly rare disorder that affects various parts of the body’s involuntary functions, such as balance, blood pressure, and the nervous system. Unfortunately, MSA advances quite rapidly, but it’s only diagnosed in about one person per 100,000 every year.
Although Marburg virus disease is often seen in Africa during intense outbreaks, it is actually quite rare with only a few hundred infections every year. The disease creates a severe hemorrhagic fever, bleeding, and organ failure.
In 1891, a Russian bartender and his family were killed by a bear after it broke into a barrel of vodka and became drunk. Reports say that the bear had been trained to consume alcohol before, but became aggressive when the bartender attempted to take the vodka barrel away. Being killed by a drunken animal is truly one of the rarest ways to go!
This disease also makes the list as one of the rarest ways to die. PNH causes a person’s immune system to attack their red blood cells, destroying them in the process. It’s truly a life-threatening disorder, but it only affects about one in every one million people.
Another disease that only impacts one in every one million people is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The disorder irreversibly changes the brain tissue and causes it to degenerate. Out of the more than 333 million people living in the US, only about 350 are diagnosed with CJD yearly.
In all of recorded history, only about 150 people have been diagnosed with Clarkson's disease, which is a disorder that causes severe fluid leakage from a person’s blood capillaries.
Some children are born with their internal organs abnormally arranged inside their bodies, which is a birth defect known as situs ambiguus. People with this defect often experience severe health complications, but it is thankfully quite rare.
There are movies about them, and there are real-life horror stories of people who have survived them, but shark attacks are actually one of the rarest ways to die in the world. In fact, the odds of being bitten or killed by a shark are less than one in 264 million.
Krabbe disease is a rare and typically fatal genetic disorder that affects the nervous system, which can lead to severe neurodegeneration. But only one in 100,000 children are born with this disease.
Much like plane crashes, many people have a deeply rooted fear of perishing in a helicopter crash. Interestingly, the odds of dying in a helicopter crash are calculated by how many accidents occur for every 100,000 hours flown, and the most recent statistic shows that there are only 1.64 accidents for every 100,000 hours. That’s quite low!
Sources: ('The Infographics Show') (NIH) (Listverse) (National Organization for Rare Disorders) (WHO) (RxList)
See also: Bizarre tropical diseases you've probably never heard of
The rarest causes of death in the world
Some of these causes are quite bizarre!
LIFESTYLE Health
There are quite a lot of nasty ways that people can meet their demise, and despite all the things we know about death, there are some incredibly strange and statistically improbable ways that some people have died.
Whether it’s diseases or simply freak accidents, click through the following gallery to discover some of the rarest causes of death in history.