Question About Ribs

I hate to sound like a know-it-all, but it was actually not possible for Victorian women to have ribs removed. Read down in this article from Snoeps - it's pretty far down - but it ought to adequately debunk that myth. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/vanities/ribs.asp

As for the rest:

Seeing as how they can remove compressed vertebrae, and seeing as how they can yank impacted teeth (still feeling the pain of that one!), I could see how they could remove a rib. If they were to open it up near where the rib connects to the spine. Cut the bone there, then slide it out (unless it's attached to the sternum - then a second incision would be necessary to remove it). Stitch it up and there you go. Of coruse, I'm no doctor or even interested in science, but that's the way I figure it would be done. I figure recovery would be long and painful, and I'm afraid I can answer no furhter questions. But I would figure that as with any procedure, sub-par medical attention would cause severe infection and other complications.

Hope my musings and ramblings helped!

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everyone else.

- Umberto Eco

I like getting weird looks from people...I think I'll talk to my doctor on Tuesday about this. 'Cause I can't find ANYTHING about any type of bone removal on the web except for stuff that has to do with bone chips and, oddly enough, a device designed for this technique:

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7294131/claims.html

Strange, considering it's a technique that doesn't exist. JAMA might have something, but I ain't paying the $15 one time usage fee just to find out.

I have learned however, that optional surgeries (such as rib removal for the women) just weren't done during Victorian times. Surgery was a deadly procedure back then, even for stuff we take advantage of today, such as tonsillectomies and appendectomies, so anyone with any sense wouldn't have it done.

I also learned that Cher hasn't had a rib removed, nor have any other danged celebrities for that matter (you're right, this is hard as hell to find any danged thing). I know, because of you, I had to read an article about it on snopes.com. On the other hand, they are getting their veins removed.

Ah, but don't worry, not all is lost here, because of a single question of yours (specifically, "e"-- What would be the results of getting sub-par medical attention?), I do have a link for you. Go figure, deboning didn't help (I do, however, now know 30 different techniques for deboning a chicken...I only needed the one that I already use "sigh"), so I figured "Forget it, send him a link about the side effects of Civil War surgery, that oughta help. And here you go, the one danged site that will do you any good:

eHistory.com: Civil War Battlefield Surgery--A Description of Civil War Field Surgery

You can't 'just slide the rib out'! It's attached to all sorts of things in there, like muscle and tendons and the pleural lining, etc.

I did just see on TV the other day some giant breasted lady in Hollywood is going to get her two lowest ribs removed so her waist will be as narrow as Dolly Partons.

Removing ribs is stupid and dangerous, however. They were put there to protect our lungs and heart as well as give us support for the trunk.

In Victorian times tiny waists were simply achieved by wearing hideously tight corsets from an early age of twelve or so on. The internal organs were compressed and rearranged over time until a tiny waist developed. This is one of the reasons Victorian woman have such a reputation for fainting. Most of their internal organs are literally compressed upward against their diaphragm and their corsets cinched hideously tight on the outside so that their lungs had little space to expand for adequate breath intake.

You could always check www.pubmed.com - it lists abstracts of all of the medical publications, although they're quite technical and jargon-heavy. Or search something like webmd.com for "fractured rib" - a lot of the symptoms and recovery information would be similar to what someone with a broken rib would experience, only much more severe. It would probably be the lowest rib or pair of ribs that would be removed - so quite painful, and breathing might be painful if only because every expansion and contraction of the lungs would aggravate the site of injury.

You might also want to try combining your google search with "rib" or "rib removal" and "body modification" - although I'll warn you that there is a lot of very graphic information out there and so it is not for the faint of heart or for anyone who feels offended by this alternative culture. If the stuff on the Internet is at least half-true, there are a lot of people out there willing to remove all sorts of parts of their bodies for one reason or another.

Thanks for all the help guys... it's really helping with the research I'm doing. And I really don't mind debunking any myths, particularly about the Victorian rumoured rib removal. I'm definitely glad that it wasn't something that really happened.

Edit: On further thought, you'd probably have a chest cavity that would appear uneven if you only had one rib removed. Interesting. (*goes back to researching this eventual plot point that looms closer in the story*)