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surgery

A cat toy and Target location.

A recent tragedy shared by Mazie Kayee on TikTok shows that good can come out of a terrible situation when people take responsibility and practice forgiveness. It all began when Kayee gave her cat, Blue, a new toy for Easter—a Fish Trio Wand cat toy that cost her under $5. The toy features a stick, resembling a fishing rod, that has fake fish dangling from it for the cat to paw at.

On the morning of Thursday, June 26, 2025, the can began throwing up and continued to vomit into the evening. The vomit was brown and had a wretched odor. After taking the cat to the vet, Kayee learned that the tassels attached to the fish had become stuck in the cat’s digestive tract. “Here was a bunch [of tassles] in his stomach and then some little strings had made their way down further, and actually somehow wrapped his intestines from the inside,” she said in a video posted to TikTok. The entanglement led to Blue developing sepsis.

Blue’s tragic final days

The vet planned to perform surgery on Blue to remove the blockage, but unfortunately, the cat died before they were able to start. “I feel like I failed as a fur parent,” she said. “This is something I didn’t read reviews on because it was a $4 toy.”

@mazie.kayee

Replying to @andie🦇 TikTok removed the last one already so part 2. #catsoftiktok #cats #cattoys #target #bootsandbarkley #sedgwick #insurance #catloss

Target takes responsibility

After the tragic death of Blue, Kayee contacted Target’s corporate office to notify them that her cat died because of their pet toy. The administrator directed her to contact Target’s insurance company as well. The great news—in the heart of a terrible situation—was that Target was entirely open to taking responsibility by fixing the problem so more cats aren't hurt by the toy.

“Target said they’re going to redesign the toy. They're going to completely redesign it,” she shared in a follow-up video. “After hearing my story and then reading the reviews, they just said ‘no more.’ Like, it's being resent to the design team. And I'm going to hear from their insurance company about some other things."

@mazie.kayee

UPDATE!! #catsoftiktok #cat #cats #target #cattoys #bootsandbarkley #catloss #fyp #trending

Further, Target’s insurance company said that it will compensate Kayee for her loss. “The insurance company has sent a letter to the manufacturer stating that they are legally obligated to give us compensation,” she told The Daily Dot. “The lady I talked to through Target said she greatly appreciated me reaching out because they don’t know if no one speaks up.”

The story of Kayee and Target is an excellent example of the good that can happen in the wake of tragedy. Target could have ignored the issue or simply refused to talk to Kayee about her cat’s death, but instead, they took her complaint seriously. Not only will they remove the dangerous item from their shelves, but they will also compensate Kayee for her loss. Kayee also demonstrated a wonderful sense of humility by practicing forgiveness and praising Target and its insurance company for their responsible actions. Kayee should also be commended for reporting her loss to Target, so no more cats are hurt by the toy.

Image by sasint/Canva

Surgeons prepared to separate 3-year-old conjoined twins in Brazil using virtual reality.

The things human beings have figured out how to do boggles the mind sometimes, especially in the realm of medicine.

It wasn't terribly long ago that people with a severe injury had to liquor up, bite a stick, have a body part sewn up or sawed off and hope for the best. (Sorry for the visual, but it's true.) The discoveries of antibiotics and anesthesia alone have completely revolutionized human existence, but we've gone well beyond that with what our best surgeons can accomplish.

Surgeries can range from fairly simple to incredibly complex, but few surgeries are more complicated than separating conjoined twins with combined major organs. That's why the recent surgical separation of conjoined twin boys with fused brains in Brazil is so incredible.



The twins, Bernardo and Arthur Lima, are almost 4 years old and have never seen one another's face. They've spent their lives conjoined at the top of their heads, facing opposite directions. Born as craniopagus twins (joined at the cranium), their brains were also fused together, making their separation extremely complex. According to the BBC, they've been cared for at the Instituto Estadual do Cérebro Paulo Niemeyer (Paulo Niemeyer State Brain Institute) in Rio de Janeiro for the past two and a half years.

Surgeon Noor ul Owase Jeelani is the founder of medical charity Gemini Untwined, which funded the surgery. He helped lead the team of nearly 100 medical workers who worked for months to prepare for the boys' separation, which was one of the most complicated of its kind.

Jeelani told the BBC that it was the first time surgeons in separate countries practiced by operating in the same "virtual reality room" together, wearing VR headsets.

"It's just wonderful," he said. "It's really great to see the anatomy and do the surgery before you actually put the children at any risk. You can’t imagine how reassuring this is for the surgeons. To do it in virtual reality was just really man-on-Mars stuff."

Watch Jeelani explain how they prepared for the procedure:

Prior attempts to separate the twins had been unsuccessful, making the surgery even more challenging due to scar tissue. However, after multiple surgeries that took more than 33 hours collectively, the boys were successfully separated in June.

“It was without a doubt the most complex surgery of my career,” said neurosurgeon Gabriel Mufarrej of the Paulo Niemeyer State Brain Institute, according to EuroNews. “At the beginning, nobody thought they would survive. It is already historic that both of them could be saved."

Jeelani told the BBC that the boys' heart rates and blood pressure were "through the roof" for four days after the surgery—until they were reunited and touched hands.

According to Reuters, Bernardo and Arthur are the oldest twins with fused brains to be successfully separated. They will spend the next six months in rehabilitation.

Congratulations to the Lima family and to the global team that combined dedication, perseverance and the miracle of modern technology to create a brighter future for these young boys.


This article originally appeared on 08.04.22

Skye wants to see her tonsils after having them removed.

It’s pretty common for people to exhibit some strange behaviors after coming out of anesthesia. Anesthesiologists call it “postoperative delirium.” It can happen after major surgery and after dental work. Dentists say it’s common for patients to weep uncontrollably after waking up from having their wisdom teeth removed.

A Utah woman named Skye is going viral after a video taken by her mother, Shani Jensen, shows her crying while saying some hilarious things after having her tonsils removed. Skye is upset because the nurses didn't let her see her tonsils, and her mom let them dispose of the cap she wore, which she refers to as "her hat."


“They keep taking my stuff here. They took my tonsils, they took my hat!" Skye says in the video with tears streaming down her face. “It’s going to be OK, though, because I got a new one … When I put it on, I just feel much better,” she said while putting on a new disposable surgical cap.”

@abc7ny

'They took my tonsils': A woman is going viral after video captured her hysterical reaction while under anesthesia for a tonsillectomy. #fyp #viralvideo #funny

During the video, Skye pushes back against her mother, who says that she shouldn’t post anything on social media while under the influence of anesthesia, which makes a lot of sense. But Skye isn't having it.

“What’s embarrassing about being a warrior, Mom?” Skye asks petulantly. “She doesn’t get it.”

Skye then recalled an embarrassing moment she had before surgery. “I forgot to wear underwear here," she said. I forgot, and they said: ‘You can take everything else off but leave your underwear.’ I said: ‘I’m not wearing any!’”

Doctor in India runs 45 minutes to hospital.

Usually when someone has to go into the hospital for surgery, they expect their surgeon to be on time and in place for their procedure. There's very little thought that goes into how the doctor's morning is going or what obstacles they faced to make it to your bedside. Dr. Govind Nandakumar from Bengaluru, India, was having a bit of a rough start due to increased traffic from bad weather. But the doctor didn't let standstill traffic stop him from going to work. Nandakumar hopped out of his car and ran to get to the operating room on time.


That's some pretty intense dedication. There are probably plenty of doctors that would've resigned themselves to the traffic and informed the hospital their patients would need to be rescheduled to later times. But Nandakumar, a gastroenterology surgeon, was having none of that. He told The Times of India, "I did not want to waste any more time waiting for the traffic to clear up as my patients aren't allowed to have their meals until surgery is over. I did not want to keep them waiting for long."

The area that Dr. Nandakumar spent more time than he cared for in his car is known for its traffic jams, according to The Times of India, but the doctor didn't have time to wait. He told his Twitter followers that the patient he was operating on was in pain and while she could've waited for a few hours, he wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

But if you ask Nandakumar, he didn't do anything special. He told his Twitter followers, "Most of us try and do our best for our patients. This run has got a lot of attention but there are so many hospital workers who go above and beyond every day."

The doctor told his followers that he didn't plan on his story blowing up and that he only recorded himself running to show to his kids at dinner. But it's not often that you find out that a doctor abandoned their car and took off running just to get to their scheduled surgery. Nandakumar has been a surgeon for 18 years according to The Times of India, and a pile-up due to heavy rains was holding up his commute.

Running through the city on your way to perform surgery is one way for him to make sure he got his cardio in. The doctor jokes about his cardio workout on his Twitter account but he continues to praise other doctors. "I would say that most doctors take care of patients. Most, if not all of us, wish the best for our patients. Like all professionals we need to earn a living. We never take decisions with money in mind. The run is nothing compared to the work I have seen many doctors and HCW do," he wrote.

Let's hope Dr. Nandakumar's subsequent commutes are much less eventful or at the very least, the run into work is planned so he can be prepared with proper footwear.