British Medical Journal
January 31st, 2007 by Roderick Russell
RELATIVELY RECENT NEWS… : Over the past year and a half I’ve been participating in a study run by radiologist Brian Witcombe of the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in Gloucester, UK, on the physiological effects of sword swallowing, which has been destined for publication in the prestigious British Medical Journal.
The original short article that preceded the full research appeared in the British Medical Journal back in 2005 and received coverage on Boing Boing (coincidentally one of my favorite blogs). The full article, co-authored by Mr. Witcombe and my former business partner with whom I founded the Sword Swallowers’ Association International oh-so-many years ago, was finally released last month. Since then it has received coverage by virtually every media outlet, be it print, television, radio or Internet.
While it’s fantastic to get such widespread coverage, and though the article is the first and most comprehensive of its kind, I must confess that there is nothing startlingly new in the article. Those readers that do not have firsthand knowledge of the art or have not read my book Confessions of a Renaissance Faire Sword Swallower may find some of the inner workings of sword swallowing highly unusual, surprising and graphic - though the New York Times did hilariously state that sword swallowing is a “surprisingly safe job”. This is due, of course, to the fact that statistics are skewed by lack of medical attention sought by us few performers when injuries do occur. Of 46 people swallowing swords, only a mere few have ever sought medical attention. Naturally the “statistics” for recorded injury are low - and those of us that do injure ourselves are understandably reluctant to admit doing so.
I think that www.fark.com stated it best when they linked to an ABC News article about the study. This was the headline:
OBVIOUS: Sword swallowing is potentially dangerous
Nevertheless, it was great to participate in the study and wonderful to see the interest that the media took.
Drop me a line before I help skew those statistics.
-Roderick
tags: british medical journal, dr. brian witcombe, gloucestershire royal hospital, sword swallowing
August 11th, 2008 at Aug 11, 08 | 5:33 pm
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