A teenage boy injected himself with mercury on at least three separate occasions in order to be more like his favorite X-Men superhero. The 15-year-old from India was trying to be more like the character Mercury but instead ended up at a local hospital with multiple ulcers that would not heal, according to a write-up in the National Center for Biotechnology Information journal. He seemed to believe that he might be able to develop the power of reshaping and resolidifying himself at will just like the superhero could.
- He could have been even more seriously hurt or even killed. When the unnamed teen turned up at a local trauma center, he was seen to have “multiple non-healing ulcers on the left forearm.” While doctors initially suspected that he had substance abuse issues, a psychiatric evaluation revealed the truth.
- He got the mercury from a thermometer. Further discussions with the boy revealed that he extracted the mercury from a thermometer on at least three occasions. He remarked that he’d been “inspired” by the superhero Mercury to try the stunt.
- This wasn’t the only way he attempted to be a real-life X-Men character. He previously allowed spiders to bite him to see if it would turn him into Spider-Man. However, he had no other psychiatric abnormalities. “Interestingly, he had a past history of multiple bites by spiders to simulate Spider-Man. Surprisingly, he had no other psychiatric problems and had a normal IQ,” the report stated.
- Thankfully, he escaped with only minor issues. After toxicology tests were carried out to test the mercury levels in his blood, it was determined that the teen had luckily managed to miss his major blood vessels. However, had had to have his ulcers removed and get a skin graft. He’s now expected to make a full recovery. “The patient did not develop clinical signs of chronic poisoning, proving that subcutaneous mercury injection has a low risk of systemic toxicity, and that histopathology plays an important role in diagnosis,” the report concluded.
