# Would you want to keep a bone surgically removed from your body? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 28, 2023, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783 "2023-03-28T12:52:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/41 "2023-03-29T14:23:52Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > In the “you can’t make this shit up” category, the daughter of friends of ours had a 5cm teratoma which contained teeth and hair removed from her abdomen yesterday. I have a close friend who is a radiologist, and, uh, yeah. I learned many years ago from him that hair and teeth do sometimes show up in tumors. (Specifically, teratomas, as I believe that’s what defines them – that they are made of different types of tissue. Even stuff like eyes or the beginnings of them, can grow in there.) ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/42 "2023-03-29T14:30:39Z")
I have the 13" implant and screw from my femur. I broke my femur as a kid on Christmas, so now the shiny rod makes a nice icicle for the Christmas tree. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/43 "2023-03-29T14:44:18Z")
Oh yeah. If they had removed one from me I’ve have fought tooth and nail to keep it. But I thought the question might be ill received by her parents. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/44 "2023-03-29T14:54:25Z")
Telling them that your religion requires that you be buried intact, so you need to save the limb might work. If they ask what religion, say Unggue. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/45 "2023-03-29T15:17:20Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > In the “you can’t make this shit up” category, the daughter of friends of ours had a 5cm teratoma which contained teeth and hair removed from her abdomen yesterday. I refrained from asking if she was allowed to keep it. I don’t know what she did, and certainly wouldn’t ask if I knew her – that’s the kind of thing where you wait to see whether the other person brings it up and if they don’t, keep one’s mouth shut – but for me, I’d definitely want something like that, again so I could bury it in the woodlot with the cats and dogs. Almost-sister! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/46 "2023-03-29T22:32:34Z")
Stephen King double feature: > [@tofor](#): > > If you eat soup made from your own bones, are you a cannibal? “Ladyfingers! They taste just like ladyfingers!” > [@muldoonthief](#): > > In the “you can’t make this shit up” category, the daughter of friends of ours had a 5cm teratoma which contained teeth and hair removed That’s the beginning of “The Dark Half,” and the first time I read that it grossed me out of existence. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/47 "2023-03-29T22:42:29Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > [@muldoonthief](#): > > > > In the “you can’t make this shit up” category, the daughter of friends of ours had a 5cm teratoma which contained teeth and hair removed > > That’s the beginning of “The Dark Half,” and the first time I read that it grossed me out of existence. The gross part is that any patient would want to keep a typical cystic teratoma after its excision. Contents typically include quantities of sebum (a fatty, oily substance produced by sebaceous glands), not particularly nice to handle or even look at. Teratoma sections are interesting to view under the microscope though, as you never know what you might find with any given specimen (skin, bone, cartilage, epithelia normally found in various organs, thyroid etc.). ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/48 "2023-03-29T22:48:20Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > I have kept teeth that ave been pulled, and still have some. When I had a hip replaced about 6 years ago they would not let me have the femur head. 😥 I didn’t think to ask in 2015, but in 2021 I did and they said no. I _did_ get to keep an ingrown toenail that I had removed at an urgent care in 2020, though (getting numbed for that was almost more painful than keeping it in would have been. It was interfering with me putting on my socks, though, so it had to go). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/49 "2023-03-29T23:00:23Z")
I feel for you, **dad99** , I had _both_ sides of the same big toe nail removed at the same time and the “doctor” administered the anesthetic incorrectly and was working on a “live” digit. I’m told you can still hear my screams of pain echoing throughout downtown Annapolis. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/50 "2023-03-30T03:17:57Z")
I could have sworn that I remember a story about a cardiologist who kept his original heart after a transplant, but I’m totally failing to find any reference to it on the web. So this may be just a figment of my fevered imagination. But if I had a hip replacement I would totally use the removed piece to make a cane. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/51 "2023-03-30T11:26:45Z")
I spoke to our friends last night, and her father, who happens to be a physician, said he wanted to keep it (unprompted). He seemed to think it was very cool that his daughter had something interesting that he learned about in med school. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/52 "2023-03-30T15:43:35Z")
I recently had a cervical spine fixation plate removed from my neck (to make room for another one going up higher). They let me keep it when I asked, though they expressed some doubts about whether they’d be allowed to do so. Apparently it’s not a common request. This was Delaware. Somewhere around 1970 my friend had a small cyst removed, and kept it in a vial. Pennsylvania. Last week my spouse had a knee replaced. I mused about asking to keep the old joint, but she wasn’t interested in the slightest. I do think a knee joint would be considerably more grisly than the plate or the cyst and am not certain I’d want to keep mine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783.md?page=2)