In June 2025, the news parted in social networks and the media: the Russian allegedly received a serious injury because he tried to restrain her sneezing, holding his nose with his hand. As an illustration, an X -ray is a picture of the victim. We checked the reliability of this story.

In Telegram channel "Ax+"(2.6 million views at the time of writing this analysis) The incident was described as follows:“ According to the media, the 34-year-old man entered the hospital after a strong sneezing that he tried to restrain: he clamped his nose with his fingers, and when he still sneezed, he felt tremors in his neck and felt that she was swollen. The patient was made an X -ray - it turned out that he had a rupture of the esophagus, which led to excessive accumulation of air in the neck in front of the trachea. Doctors warn: to clamp the mouth and nose so as not to sneeze, it is dangerous. This can lead to an accumulation of excess air in the chest, rupture of the eardrum and even a rupture of the aneurysm of the brain. ”

Similar posts appeared in other Russian-speaking Telegram channels, among which "Dual"(282,000 views),"Russia now"(202 000),"Putin in Telegram"(178 000),"Rhymes and Panchi"(163 000), 112 (163,000), "Evil news"(156 000),"Knockout"(149,000),"Not Morgenstern"(107 000),"Rhymes and news"(98 000),"Pool N3"(98 000),"The main news"(79,000) and"In short, 18+"(72 000). The media wrote about the alleged injury of a resident of Karelia: the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Truth"(On Facebook*), Life.ru, "Provincial Daily" Amur.life, as well as television channels "World 24"(In" Odnoklassniki ") and 360 (in Telegram). Similar notes are found on VKontakte (examples here, here And here) and in the social network X.

Unlike the above Telegram channels, many publications V their own publications They referred Not on unnamed media, but to the community "GBUZ "Suoyarv Central District Hospital""On VKontakte. If you believe the screenshot cited by them, information about a man who torn his throat in an attempt not to sneeze was placed in the public of the Central District Hospital in the Karelian city of Suoyarvi on May 28, 2025. At the time of writing this analysis, the post has already been deleted.

Screenshot of the post from the site vk.com. Photo: gubdaily.ru

According to the screenshot, either the name of the victim or the day he injured or turned to the doctors was not specified in the publication of the Suoyarv hospital. In addition to the viral radiograph, other materials were not attached to the post.

Using a reverse search for pictures in Google, you can find publications With the same X -ray picture as in the message of the Suoyarv Central District Hospital, but posted a few years ago. It was first published in January 2018 in the BMJ Case Reports Medical Journal British doctors, described The case of the gap of the pharynx when trying to hold back the sneeze. The circumstances of the incident set forth by doctors completely coincide with the story from the post of Karelian hospital. The journal states that the article Accepted To the publication in December 2017, that is, the patient addressed the doctors at least a few months earlier.

As for such incidents in Karelia in May-June 2025, the local publication "Factor" with reference to the Ministry of Health of the Republic reportedthat they were not.

Thus, in the posts and notes that dispersed in 2025, a story was told, which actually occurred at least about eight years ago. The first case was described not by the Karelian doctors in a public in social networks, but by British in a medical journal. At the time of publication of this analysis some posts On VKontakte, they received a special dick of possible misinformation from the platform - for the same reason, the original publication of the Suoyarv Central District Hospital was also removed.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, is prohibited by an extremist organization, its activities and symbolism in Russia.

Photo on the cover: BMJ Case Reports