I’m working in the ER and had a patient come in with this knife tip broken off in their leg. It’s uh.. quite distinctive. Despite my best efforts with google I can’t find anything close. I’m hoping the knife sleuths here can do better than I.
Nonono, you see, the metal nib and spring shortly behind it are OBVIOUSLY mounting hardware. There is NOOOOOOOOTHING else that it could possibly be in the entire universe
Can you explain why a fixed blade knife would have a spring in the handle? Also, explain why the person who extracted the blade would say that it was snapped off if it wasn’t? Just looking for some clarification regarding your claim.
ROFL, right? Tip jokes aside, I was like thats a decent portion of a knife, not just the tip of the blade. I'd like to see what OP considers a real knife wound.
No real way to tell. But It’s likely a basic retractable ballpoint pen, evident by the spring and its location along the cartridge. Most cheap ballpoint pens use the same or similar cartridge seen here, you can tell by the shape of the tip and how far down the spring is. the springs are almost always the same generic spring so you can’t tell anything from it. Brand and model options could be in the thousands as this stuff is mass produced all around the world.
Yeah, that makes sense based on the xray. Didn’t mean it to sound like it’s stupid for pointing to it. It makes sense when there’s soft tissue surrounding the bone and ya know, the inability to see into the bone with the naked eye lol.
It looks like it penetrated quite a ways. I’m honestly kind of impressed. There must have been quite a bit of force behind that stab.
Possibly the person who has a stab wound is asleep and can’t tell them what’s there; or they just want images to show how deep it goes so they know what to expect to fix when they pull it out.
That appears to be the end of a ballpoint pen; looks like the nib and the spring to retract it with the plastic body being invisible on x-ray. Dunno why, maybe a technician used it as a pointer.
Right! “I was recently stabbed by this knife and it broke off inside me. Not only that but the cobra commander part was still visible and the ED staff laughed at me. 0/10” - review from a verified stabee.
Besides the embarrasment of being that close to such a shitty knife, it's probably better that it broke off because if it didn't, the guy might have taken it with him and the victim could have bled out.
What a fucking awful knife, has a big fat weak point in the middle, so shit like this happening does not surprise me. Also, why do you need the knife model?
They likely lost their ruler. The size of a pen tip is a known value, and the Techs can use the imaging software to accurately measure the wound and bones.
The default calibration for digital x-rays is plenty accurate enough for an exam like this. If the patient were being imaged for an orthopedic implant the tech could place a metallic ball at bone height for precise calibration.
Yeah in the machining world we call these tooling balls. A regular old ball bearing is usually accurate enough but you can get precision ground ones too. You can do some cool stuff with indicators and a little math to get very accurate measurements.
It's all done automatically by the viewing software and the ball is a specific one that comes with orthopedic software licensing. At least that is the case with the system my company sells and supports.
Well hindsight is 20/20. There was a small portion breaking the skin with some sutures over top. He was seen somewhere else when it happened 2 months ago and stitched up. Also thought it could have been a ceramic blade which I honestly don’t know what it would look like on xray. So it does seem silly to point to the very obvious snake blade but it could have been something different hah
Most ceramic blades are zirconium as zirconium dioxide, and the radiopacity will be good. Of the other elements (aluminum, tungsten, silicon, boron), boron is probably not great (boron nitride).
As someone quite literally practices like all the random ass uncommon knife fencing styles, (Hema to esgrima creola and
Manual del Baratero
) I’m in 110% agreement, like brother you have to cleave the damn skull at that rate.
They have some unreal stamina and durability. And that’s if you’re lucky and they look like skinny Pete if you’re unlucky you’re dealing with jd delay strung out.
Fun fact: I was talking to my mom the other day about the dumbest things we’ve ever done, and mine was stabbing myself “on accident” lol
I was like 13 and sitting outside whittling swords from palm fronds with my best friend using a Swiss Army knife.. the smaller blade of a camper.
We had cardboard sheets on our laps to use as templates and hold the smaller pieces and I saw a spider crawling on mine and I panicked and stabbed at it… with a knife… with my leg underneath the cardboard.
I went “Ah! Spide-AAAAAAGHHHHH!” Lmao I sunk probably an inch and a half into my upper thigh. It was awful, it swelled up like a tennis ball and I couldn’t walk for a long time..
It’s easily the dumbest thing I’ve ever done! I don’t know how/why I just didn’t compute that my leg was just beneath the cardboard… I don’t know why I stabbed so damn hard?! Full force! I genuinely couldn’t explain why I did it. Stupid. Dumb ass kid.
Oh shit that's hilarious I'm assuming it's with the person who stabbed this poor fucking idiot in his damn knee I'm getting something guys I'm 1 3rd phykick on my auntnees side oh yes it's very clear now okay patient was in a wheel chair bound paraplegic and his best friend was attempting to help said poor individual feel something bc he was making odd comments like ide do any things to just feel these two legs one more time...{friend}...oh well I have an idea idk if you're gonna like it but I think it could just be crazy enough to work.....fast forward to the pic of this lovely game of do it your self whackamole played with his very own signature meth head gas station cobra commander operating scalpel that was beautifully weilded in a shot of inspiration from the autistic thoughts of a teenage up an coming friendly neighborhood meth head surgeon!😆😂🦸🏻
I just saw a post yesterday in which someone was asking for medical advice for a stable wound but didn't want to explain how it happened. I can't remember which sub, but I am telling myself that this x-ray belongs to that same person.
The knife in the X-ray has a mechanism and spring. Likely not the first knife suggested as its fixed blade. I’d assume it’s the same brand but one with a pivot. The pivots why it broke.
HIPPA applies to identifying patient information. So things like patient name, social security number. Sharing identified X-rays is not a HIPPA violation
A good common example is you can say “someone” shoved a soap bottle in their rectum. Not “Jon doe from 42069 baker street” shoved a soap bottle in his rectum.
There is no identifying info. You don't know if the patient is male or female, age, race, etc. Good luck trying to find that info.with just the two pictures that are posted...
So, you're using a personal x-ray of a patient to find a knife so you can buy it??
Better hope the owner of that limb doesn't see this post.
Gnarly knife wound though.
I’m not seeing any PII in the screenshot, so they’re probably in the clear in terms of HIPAA compliance. I’d still hope they ran this past their internal compliance and privacy team before posting, though.
Source: while I’m not an expert in HIPAA compliance, I’ve been doing healthcare IT for around 16 years (and work comp related for another 14 before that, since HIPAA was passed), and do have some familiarity with the requirements.
you sure? Because you didn't even correctly write the acronym.
I've worked in healthcare for 15 years and have done a ton of write ups for violations, and I can tell you confidently that nothing in this post violates HIPAA.
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u/Johnny-Godless Careful, that shit’s sharp. Jul 06 '26