Buzz
This compilation is not designed for those with sensitive stomachs. You might want to finish your meal before diving in. However, for the daring souls who proceed, you'll discover that your own tales of digestive distress pale in comparison to the unfortunate and pungent stories shared here.
10. Kim Jong Un’s Enhanced Culinary Choices
In 2016, Typhoon Lionrock devastated North Korea's Hamgyong Province, triggering massive floods that wiped out most of the nation's crops. Officials inspecting the affected area reported to Kim Jong Un that border guard soldiers were suffering from inadequate nutrition.
In response, the authoritarian leader mandated enhanced meals to ensure the soldiers “would not envy a Chinese person.” Shortly after, the troops' dietary gaps were filled with “materials” aimed at improving the quality of their rations.
However, Kim’s loyal—and likely fearful—soldiers faced an unfortunate twist: the upgraded food supply was contaminated. Alongside Japanese sandfish, which reportedly had a “strange odor,” iron powder and threads from a military training facility were accidentally mixed into the food.
Already weakened by hunger, the soldiers were further plagued by severe diarrhea, deepening their “envy” of the well-fed Chinese. The incident sparked outrage and undoubtedly led to a surge in underwear production for Kim’s dedicated troops.
9. The Moment The Music Died
A three-day field trip in 2016, meant to be a joyful experience for eighth-graders from Isaac E. Young Middle School in New Rochelle, New York, turned into a smelly disaster. During their second day in Washington, DC, the group of 68 students dined on a boat while enjoying views of the capital.
Around 9:00 PM, many of the students, who had been dancing on the dock, suddenly began experiencing uncontrollable bowel movements. This brought their music and awkward dance moves to a messy and abrupt halt.
Several students took to social media—a common yet bizarre trend in modern society—to share their bathroom escapements, which lasted until the early hours. The incident, likely caused by a severe case of food poisoning, left 22 students with soiled pants, and ten required hospitalization due to dehydration.
8. War Etiquette
In the Civil War, an unspoken rule of honor prohibited shooting at anyone “answering nature’s call.” Such battlefield courtesy is absent in modern warfare, prompting many soldiers to take preventive measures like Imodium or antibiotics before missions.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, 32 percent of soldiers experienced diarrhea on the battlefield, with Special Ops personnel suffering twice as often. While such issues are not new in wartime, the military has progressed significantly from an era when dysentery was deadlier than enemy fire.
During the Civil War, diarrhea claimed 95,000 soldiers' lives. Similarly, in the Mexican War of 1848, US troops died from diarrheal diseases seven times more often than from combat injuries. Despite modern medical progress, diarrhea remains a significant challenge for soldiers, often jeopardizing mission success.
For example, during a mission over Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, the sole crew member trained to operate the plane’s defensive systems was stuck in the lavatory. The crisis escalated when a defective seal caused the toilet to flood the cabin, resulting in a “blue-brown downpour” that distracted the navigator and hindered his focus on critical tasks.
7. Trapped In The Sky
Long-haul flights are rarely enjoyable, and even less so when the aircraft is filled with the stench of feces. In 2015, a British Airways flight to Dubai faced this issue when a passenger’s bathroom visit caused a foul odor to spread throughout the plane. Thankfully, the pilot decided to return to London, sparing passengers from further discomfort.
Passengers on a Qantas flight from Chile to Australia in 2013 weren’t as fortunate. Midway through the 14-hour journey, 26 travelers were struck by severe diarrhea, leading to chaotic scrambles for the plane’s eight restrooms.
After landing in Sydney, the affected passengers were isolated, with 16 requiring hospitalization on stretchers. The ill individuals were part of a tour group that had contracted norovirus, a highly infectious stomach virus. Qantas thoroughly cleaned and decontaminated the aircraft, which had become a flying biohazard, and advised all other passengers to monitor their health closely.
6. Vandalism Or Incontinence?
In 2013, Ronald Strong, 50, challenged his one-week jail sentence issued by a Maine district court for creating a hazard and damaging federal property. Testimony from a custodian revealed that Strong had defiled a courthouse restroom, covering 75 percent of the floor and smearing fecal matter up to 0.6 meters (2 feet) on the walls.
Strong, who firmly denied any deliberate misconduct, argued that his condition was an unintended side effect of heart medication. Despite his explanation, the appeals court focused on how such extensive fecal contamination could occur unintentionally.
Strong compared the incident to “spilling spaghetti sauce with meat and trying to clean it up quickly.” It’s unclear how this vivid analogy was meant to support his defense. Nevertheless, the judges maintained the original verdict, concluding that the scale of the damage suggested a willful act of vandalism.
5. A Dream Vacation
Viral outbreaks, power failures, engine fires, and drifting aimlessly are terrifying scenarios no traveler expects on a dream cruise. Yet, all these disasters struck the unfortunate Carnival Triumph in 2013.
An engine fire left the ship stranded in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing its 4,200 passengers to endure food and water shortages, no electricity, and toilets that overflowed uncontrollably.
During a civil lawsuit, one passenger revealed her trauma was psychological rather than physical. She recounted slipping and sliding through dark hallways flooded with “water, feces, urine, and who knows what else” for days.
As if the infamous “poop cruise” couldn’t get worse, diarrhea added to the misery. Finding a working toilet was as rare as spotting an oasis in the Sahara, forcing passengers to relieve themselves in the most inconvenient places.
With crowded decks and hallways doubling as makeshift toilets, the idea of romance on this supposed getaway was unimaginable. Eventually, the ship, now a floating disaster, docked days after the fire, leaving passengers with little dignity and even fewer clean clothes.
4. The White House
In the mid-19th century, the White House water supply was likely tainted by a nearby repository that stored human waste from cesspools and outhouses. This contamination is thought to have contributed to the sudden deaths of Presidents William Henry Harrison (1841), James K. Polk (1849), and Zachary Taylor (1850).
All three presidents experienced frequent episodes of “violent” diarrhea while residing in the White House. At times, the condition was so debilitating that it left them immobile. Polk described these severe and agonizing bouts as likely caused by gastroenteritis.
The contamination of the nearest water source with sewage likely explains the mysterious illnesses affecting not only Harrison, Polk, and Taylor but also Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson himself noted that his lifelong struggle with diarrhea began after he moved into the White House. This condition eventually left him severely dehydrated and confined to bed until his death in 1826.
3. A True ‘Scumbag’
Whether he lacked affection as a child or is simply a misguided prankster, Ekwan Hill, 42, must now face Manhattan’s Special Victims Unit for his bizarre and inappropriate actions toward two women.
In 2016, Hill initiated his disturbing behavior by smearing feces on a 33-year-old woman’s face and torso. Just two hours later, he targeted another woman, sneaking up behind her and stuffing his waste into her pants while groping her.
Still disgusted? It gets worse.
After hurling leftover feces at a bystander, Hill fled but was soon apprehended at a Brooklyn homeless shelter. During questioning, he bizarrely claimed, “God did it,” and later described his actions as “a Farrakhan thing.”
Residents at the mental health shelter where Hill lived described him as having a foul odor and a reputation for being a “scumbag.” He was also suspected of smearing feces on the mirrors, walls, and floors of the communal bathroom. Hill was eventually charged with sexual abuse and assault.
2. Arius
In fourth-century Alexandria, Egypt, a Libyan priest named Arius held a controversial belief that placed him on the wrong side of history. Arius claimed that “Jesus’s wisdom and teachings were more significant than His death and resurrection,” asserting that while Jesus was divine, He was not fully God.
Arius’s heretical views gained him widespread popularity among the locals but alienated him from Bishop Alexander, who accused him of heresy and banished him from the city.
According to legend, Arius met his end through a “divinely inflicted” intestinal disorder, collapsing from the condition while en route to a church meeting with Bishop Alexander and the emperor. Medieval writers depicted Arius’s death as far from an ordinary case of diarrhea.
He suffered a gruesome death, expelling both waste and internal organs from his mouth and anus. The shocking incident, which left the exiled priest dead in a public latrine, was widely regarded as divine punishment for his heretical beliefs.
1. Norway’s Poop Scoundrel
While this case doesn’t directly involve diarrhea, the strange details surrounding Norway’s most infamous fecal offender are too peculiar to overlook. For over a decade, an unidentified individual has been defecating in holes on a Norwegian golf course, forcing groundskeeper Kenneth Tennfjord to repeatedly clean up the mess.
Here’s what we know about the sentimental culprit: He only strikes on weekdays, has “a few preferred holes,” and tire tracks suggest he uses a bicycle. Most notably, the offender is presumed to be male, as “the size of the deposits rules out a woman.”
Efforts to catch the offender have been unsuccessful. Authorities installed floodlights on the course, but the determined individual dismantled them, ensuring a peaceful setting for his activities. His motives remain a mystery, and it’s uncertain whether this decade-long Norwegian enigma will ever be resolved.
