Massive kidney stone surgically removed from patient

Surgeons at a hospital in Sri Lanka said a patient underwent surgery to remove a massive kidney stone in his right kidney Dr Kugadas Sutharshan and the urological team at Army Hospital in Colombo performed surgery on Canistus Coonghe, to remove the colossal stone from his kidney. Coonghe’s kidney was still performing its normal functions and he is now recovering well from the operation.

The stone measured 5.26 inches long and 4.15 inches wide, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest kidney stone ever recorded. The previous largest stone, which measured 5.11 inches long, was removed from a patient in India in 2004.

The kidney stone was also certified as the heaviest on record, weighing 1.76 pounds

Ice chunk falls from the sky

A Pennsylvania man’s gutters were left dented when a mysterious chunk of ice fell from the sky and struck the edge of his house.

Jesse Gonzales was at home when he heard a loud noise around 12:15 p.m. “So, I came downstairs and there were chunks of ice all over the yard. I found there was ice that was buried in the ground. I was like, ‘OK, that obviously came from the sky at some point’,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales soon discovered the ice chunk had dented his gutter.

Gonzales said his dogs were lucky to be uninjured, as they were nearby when the ice fell from the sky.

Man’s Dalmatian collection breaks world record

A Florida man with a particular love of one specific dog breed earned a Guinness World Record for the largest collection of Dalmatian-related items, with 1,152 pieces.

Scott Erbele, of Fort Lauderdale, said his collection began with a Dalmatian lamp his parents bought him when he was a baby in 1954.

But the interest was halted with work routine, however, it restarted when he filled his first cabinet with collectible Dalmatian items in the early 2000s, and today it fills several cabinets and has spread into the rest of his home with collection featuring plush toys, figurines, Christmas decorations and artwork including a pair of Thomas Kinkade prints worth about $2,000 each.

World’s tallest poison ivy plant

Robert Fedrock, of Paris, Ontario, Canada, first spotted the large vine growing up a tree on his property several years ago.

“It took me a while to figure out what kind of vine it was, because the leaves only started about [10 feet] off the ground, and the aerial roots were such a tangled mass that I didn’t recognise it as poison ivy right away,” Fedrock told.

Fedrock had to dig out some buckthorn to get a better view. And the experience left him with a positive identification — poison ivy rashes on his hands, arms, face and stomach.

He said, “The oil that causes the rash is also in the dead leaves which litter the area. It seeps into the dirt, and the underground roots also contain it and were likely intermingled with the common buckthorn roots I was digging out.”

Guinness World Records confirmed it is the tallest poison ivy plant in the world.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 8th, 2023