Crocodile bites, the Plague and an ‘excessive sex drive’: All the WEIRDEST reasons Britons needed NHS treatment last year

crocodile attacks, lightning strike and simply being too horny are some of the strangest reasons why people in England needed hospital care last year.

MailOnline analyzed official NHS England data to uncover some of the strangest causes of hospital admission in the year to March 2023.

Some elderly Britons needed hospital care after being “bitten or hit” by a crocodile in their own home, with one needing emergency treatment.

Other strange cases involved Britons exposed to volcanoes, contracting the plague, or exposed to a nuclear weapon.

The NHS data is anonymised and only reveals the age and sex of patients, as well as whether the case was an emergency.

Furthermore, it only records admissions, not individual patients, meaning that, in theory, an individual Briton could appear more than once in the figures.

Additionally, some incidents are believed to have occurred abroad when British people sought help upon returning from a trip abroad.

Here, MailOnline details some of the strangest reasons why people needed NHS treatment between April 2022 and March this year:

Animal attacks, both large and small.

In total, six Britons were “bitten or struck” by a crocodile or alligator last year, and the average age of the victims was 68.

Two British men, both over 70, were attacked in their homes and in one case seriously injured.

And another elderly British woman, this time a 79-year-old woman, was injured by a predatory reptile on a street or highway, although her injury did not appear to be serious.

Crocodiles weren’t the only scaly aggressors that sent Brits to the hospital last year.

A further 68 Britons were bitten or “smashed” by reptiles – a group that includes lizards and turtles – and 22 of the cases were an emergency.

The vast majority of these admissions related to incidents in the home, suggesting that the attacks were by pets.

Six Britons were “bitten or hit” by a crocodile last year, and the average age of the victims was 68 (file image)

Exposure to snake venom was responsible for 65 admissions, 10 of which were children and 10 classified as emergencies.

The UK only has one native venomous snake, the copperhead, although people can buy much deadlier exotic species as pets.

The spider venom caused 25 admissions, but only three of them were classified as emergencies.

Britons were also sent to hospital 23 times last year after “contact with a marine animal” such as a shark, seal, crab or octopus, and eight admissions were emergency admissions.

One unfortunate Briton needed care after being stung by a scorpion and two were patiently bitten or sprayed by a poisoned millipede or centipede.

But dogs were the biggest animal threat to the British, with 9,424 entries, a third of which were emergencies.

Natural disasters, toxic mushrooms and nuclear weapons

Animals weren’t the only natural hazard that sent Brits to the hospital last year.

A total of nine Britons, six men and three women, needed medical attention after being struck by lightning, although only three needed emergency care.

Six Britons also needed help after being exposed to a volcanic eruption, for example by breathing ash, although none were an emergency.

An 84-year-old man needed treatment for exposure to nuclear weapons (file image)

As the UK has no active volcanoes, these admissions are likely to relate to incidents that occurred abroad and the British sought help upon their return.

Forest foragers were also at risk of hospitalization, with 67 admissions due to exposure to toxic fungi, 25 of which were emergencies.

One of the most unique NHS admissions was that of an 84-year-old man who needed treatment for nuclear weapons exposure.

Given the man’s age and the fact that admission was not considered an emergency, it is most likely that he was one of more than 20,000 British servicemen who took part in nuclear weapons tests between 1952 and 1967 in Australia and the South Pacific.

However, given the anonymous nature of NHS data, this cannot be confirmed.

Diseases ranging from Ebola to the Black Death to worms in the eyeballs

While concerns about new Covid variants dominated the news last year, other, sometimes older pathogens sent Britons to hospital.

A total of 42 Britons needed treatment for the plague, known as the Black Death, a disease responsible for killing millions of Europeans during the Middle Ages.

It owes its name to the black sores that appeared on the bodies of those infected.

Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, the disease was transmitted by fleas on the backs of rats and spread throughout medieval Europe.

Fortunately, it is now much less dangerous thanks to antibiotics, but it can still be fatal if left untreated.

Of the cases found in England, 13 were of pneumonic plague, an aerial version of the disease.

However, four cases suffered from the bubonic form of the disease, which produces the famous boils.

Last year, three Britons needed NHS care for the incredibly contagious and dangerous flesh-eating Ebola virus.

Three Britons were admitted to the NHS with the incredibly contagious and dangerous flesh-eating Ebola virus, one of whom was a baby under one year old.

Two of the cases were considered emergency admissions, which is standard practice for Ebola cases in the NHS.

Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever that causes muscle and joint pain, fever, bleeding and shock from blood loss and kills about half of those who contract it.

NHS data does not include the outcome of any admissions.

A hospital in Essex was closed for one night in November last year after a patient developed telltale symptoms of the virus.

Two cases of anthrax, a disease normally associated with ancient history or bioterrorism, were also reported in the latest NHS data.

One of them was for anthrax sepsis, where the bacteria’s spores enter the bloodstream directly, for example through a needle.

Cases of anthrax sepsis among heroin users have previously been reported in the United Kingdom.

One of the most harrowing infections recorded in NHS figures was ocular myiasis, where flies deposit maggots in one or both of a patient’s eyes.

A total of 24 cases were recorded and the patients had an average age of 76 years.

Sexual disorders and foreign objects lodged in intimate areas.

Britons were affected by a wide range of sexual disorders in 2022-23.

Last year, a total of 37 cases of “excessive sexual drive” were diagnosed, which could mean that Britons suffer from so-called sex addiction.

Of the registered admissions, the vast majority (30) were men, with a global average age of 57 years.

Surprisingly, eight of those diagnosed with this condition were over 80 years old.

A total of 37 cases of “excessive sexual desire” were diagnosed among Britons last year (file image)

However, some or all of them may have been the same patient who sought care multiple times.

Exhibitionism, a fetish in which people get aroused by showing their naked bodies to others, was diagnosed 25 times.

Only one woman was diagnosed with this condition, with an overall average age of 50 years.

Two diagnoses of voyeurism, the practice of obtaining sexual pleasure by watching others have sex or spying on them when they are naked, were also recorded, both in men.

In addition, nearly 2,250 admissions were recorded due to the discovery of foreign bodies in the rectum, vagina or urethra.

The NHS recorded 1,021 cases of objects in the rectum, a complaint twice as common among men as women.

There were 965 objects found in vaginas and 263 cases of someone getting an object stuck in their vagina. urethra.

Inserting objects into the urethra for sexual pleasure is called catheterization, but objects inserted this way carry the risk of becoming stuck and requiring medical attention to remove.