As the story goes, Houdini was in his dressing room attempting to impress some college students. He boasted that, by flexing his ab muscles, he could withstand any of their hardest blows. One of the students started punching Houdini before he was prepared, which caused him to double over in pain.
The common logic of the time was that these blows were what ruptured his appendix and led to his untimely death later that week. However, most modern medical experts claim that appendicitis caused by blunt force trauma is both unheard of and impossible.
Therefore, it is far more likely that Houdini had been suffering from appendicitis BEFORE the punching incident. He probably disregarded any subsequent abdominal pain as having stemmed from the punches. However, in reality it was a far more serious medical condition which almost certainly would not have been ignored had the dressing room incident never occurred.
Source : http://www.omg-facts.com
Further reading : http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/houdini.asp
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