Imagine clicking your fingers. Now imagine doing that every few seconds, every single day, for nearly seven decades. It sounds like a psychological thriller, but for one man from Anthon, Iowa, it was just Tuesday. For sixty-eight years. Charles Osborne holds the Guinness World Record for the longest case of the hiccups, a medical anomaly so persistent it outlasted several presidencies, two world wars, and the invention of the television.
Hiccups are usually a punchline. You drink some water upside down, someone scares you in a hallway, and they vanish. But when your diaphragm decides to seize up and stay that way from 1922 until 1990, the joke wears thin pretty fast.
The Day the Longest Case of the Hiccups Started
It didn't start with a spicy meal or a carbonated drink. Osborne was a farmhand, and in 1922, he was prepping a hog for slaughter. He attempted to weigh a 350-pound hog, and as he lifted the animal, he fell. That was the moment. He didn't feel immediate pain, but his diaphragm began to spasm. He probably figured it would pass by dinner. It didn't.
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According to medical experts who studied him later, like those cited in various Guinness World Record entries, the fall likely caused a blood vessel the size of a pin in his brain to rupture. Specifically, it's believed he damaged a tiny part of the brainstem that inhibits the hiccup response. Basically, the "off" switch broke.
Most people don't realize how exhausting this actually is. In the early years, Osborne was hiccuping roughly 40 times per minute. Think about the physical toll of your chest wall constricting 2,400 times an hour. As he aged, the rate slowed down to about 20 hiccups a minute, but the rhythm remained constant. He didn't just have the longest case of the hiccups; he had a lifetime of involuntary aerobic exercise he never asked for.
Why Science Couldn't Stop the Spasms
You’d think in sixty-eight years, a doctor would have found a fix. He traveled everywhere. He saw specialists in the Mayo Clinic and beyond. They tried everything known to 20th-century medicine. Carbon dioxide and oxygen trials? Checked. Various sedatives? Didn't work. One doctor even tried to stop the hiccups using experimental hormone therapy, but it failed to stick.
The only thing that actually "worked" was a surgical procedure involving the phrenic nerve, which controls the diaphragm. However, doctors warned him that the surgery could permanently damage his breathing or voice. Osborne opted out. He decided he’d rather live with the noise than risk his breath.
It’s a weirdly human decision.
He eventually stopped looking for a cure. He realized that the medical community was just as baffled as he was. When you're dealing with the longest case of the hiccups in history, you are the frontier of science, and sometimes the frontier is a lonely, rhythmic place.
The Art of Breathing Between the Lines
How do you eat? How do you sleep? How do you have a conversation when your body is glitching every three seconds? Osborne became a master of "stealth hiccuping." He trained himself to suppress the sound by breathing in deeply between the spasms. If you sat across from him at a diner, you might notice his shoulders jerk slightly, but you wouldn't hear that classic "hic" sound.
He got married. Twice. He fathered eight children. He lived a life that was, by all accounts, incredibly normal despite the internal chaos. He worked, he socialized, and he didn't let the condition turn him into a recluse. It’s a testament to human adaptability. We can get used to almost anything if we're forced to.
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The Sudden Silence in 1990
Then, without warning, they just... stopped. In June 1990, the hiccups vanished as mysteriously as they had arrived. After 430 million hiccups (give or take a few million), Osborne finally had peace.
Sadly, the silence didn't last long. He passed away about a year later in May 1991 from complications related to ulcers. Some people find it poetic that he got one final year of quiet before the end. Others find it tragic.
What We Get Wrong About Chronic Hiccups
When we talk about the longest case of the hiccups, people often confuse singultus (the medical term) with a simple annoyance. But for people like Osborne, or more modern cases like Christopher Sands or Jennifer Mee, it’s a debilitating neurological or gastric issue.
Chronic hiccups—those lasting longer than 48 hours—are usually a symptom of an underlying trigger. It could be:
- Vagus nerve irritation: Hair or a tumor touching the eardrum can actually trigger the reflex.
- CNS Disorders: Multiple sclerosis, strokes, or traumatic brain injuries (like Osborne's fall).
- Metabolic issues: Kidney failure or diabetes.
- Gastrointestinal reflux: GERD is a huge culprit in shorter "long" bouts.
The tragedy of Osborne's era was the lack of imaging technology. If he’d had an MRI in 1922, doctors might have seen the specific lesion in his brain. Today, we have baclofen, gabapentin, and even chlorpromazine to treat intractable hiccups. Osborne had none of that. He just had grit.
How to Handle a Hiccup Bout That Won't Quit
If you're reading this because you're on hour six of a hiccup fit, don't panic. You probably don't have a 68-year sentence ahead of you. But there are actual, evidence-based ways to reset your diaphragm that don't involve being scared by a roommate.
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The goal is to increase the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in your blood or stimulate the vagus nerve.
Vagus Nerve Stimulation Tricks:
Pulling on your tongue (gently!) can sometimes stimulate the nerve enough to break the cycle. Alternatively, pressing lightly on your eyeballs or performing a Valsalva maneuver—bearing down as if you're having a bowel movement while holding your breath—can reset the rhythm.
The Nasopharynx Reset:
Sipping ice-cold water or swallowing a teaspoon of dry sugar can provide an intense sensory input to the back of the throat. This often "distracts" the nerves responsible for the hiccup arc.
When to See a Doctor:
Honestly, if they last more than 48 hours, go to the ER or a clinic. It’s no longer a "burp's weird cousin" at that point; it’s a medical event. Doctors can look for infections like pneumonia or pleurisy that might be irritating the diaphragm.
Moving Forward From the Osborne Legacy
Charles Osborne's story isn't just a "weird news" tidbit. It's a look into how the brain handles a constant, low-level physical trauma. He didn't let a broken diaphragm define his personality. He just kept weighing hogs, raising kids, and living.
If you find yourself stuck with a persistent bout, remember that modern medicine has come a long way since the 1920s. We have neurological interventions and pharmacological options that would have seemed like magic to a farmhand in Iowa a century ago.
Actionable Steps for Intractable Hiccups:
- Track the triggers: If your hiccups start after eating, look into GERD or hiatal hernia treatments.
- Request a Neurological Consult: If a bout lasts over two days, ask for an MRI to rule out CNS lesions or nerve compression.
- Explore Phrenic Nerve Blocks: In extreme cases, temporary nerve blocks can provide the "reset" the body needs without the permanent risks Osborne feared.
- Avoid the "Old Wives" Remedies: Holding your breath until you turn blue doesn't help and can cause fainting. Focus on controlled CO2 buildup via breathing into a small paper bag instead.
The longest case of the hiccups remains a singular event in medical history. It teaches us that the body is a strange, glitchy machine, but also one that is incredibly resilient. Hopefully, no one ever breaks Osborne's record. One record-breaker is more than enough for one century.