A 45-year-old construction worker presented with extreme shoulder swelling and pain. X-rays revealed a shocking absence: his entire shoulder joint was gone, with the humeral head seemingly disintegrated and the upper arm bone detached.

Further MRI scans showed the destruction extended to his rotator cuff, with full-thickness tears in three of the four main tendons. Doctors diagnosed him with Milwaukee Shoulder Syndrome (MSS), a rare condition characterized by severe shoulder joint destruction and massive rotator cuff tears.

This diagnosis was based on similar cases of four elderly women in Wisconsin observed in 1981. MSS is considered similar to, and potentially a subtype of, rapid destructive arthritis, identified in 1982.