The Story of Charles Osborne, the Man Who Had the Hiccups Non-Stop for Approximately 68 Years, From 1922 to 1990

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When you’re suddenly attacked with a bout of the hiccups, it can feel like they last forever. And for one man, that was almost the case! Charles Osborne (1894-1991) was the victim of the longest attack of hiccups, which lasted a jaw-dropping 68 years, from 1922 to 1990.

Charles Osborne got the hiccups as a young man but it followed him into his elderly years.

Charles, then working as a farmer, was trying to weigh a hog that he was planning to slaughter when he fell and started hiccupping back in 1922. The doctor, Terence Anthoney, believed that when Charles fell, he destroyed a small area in his brain that would have inhibited his hiccup response.

“I was hanging a 350-pound hog for butchering,” he told People in 1982. “I picked it up and then I fell down. I felt nothing, but the doctor said later that I busted a blood vessel the size of a pin in my brain.”

Charles tried again and again to find a cure for the annoying bodily function, but it wasn’t until one morning in February 1990 that they eventually stopped, with the final year of his life bringing him that long-awaited reprieve. Despite this rather frustrating factor in his life, he still managed to lead a normal one.

He got married twice and fathered eight children, all while hiccupping. On average, Osborne experienced 20 to 40 involuntary diaphragm spasms per minute. In total, he hiccupped an estimated 430 million times before his death in May 1991 at age 97.

Charles made headlines many times in his life, including a newspaper story in 1978 which carried the headline “Man still seeking cure for 56 years of hiccups.”

His employer, who perhaps felt some form of responsibility for the never-ending hiccups, even sent Charles for special treatment in Omaha, Nebraska. It seemed to work at first, but then his hiccups would start up again as soon as he returned home. He told La Cross Tribune: “I made four trips to Omaha. But every time I got back home they would start again. I’ve had them ever since.”