A man in China complained of non-stop coughing and went to the doctor, after which they conducted a CT scan but didn¡¯t find anything unusual. However, when they did a bronchoscopy - an endoscopic technique that visualises the inside of air passages - they found out that two leeches were living inside him.?
The incident came to light when the patient claimed to have coughed up blood and went to the respiratory department of Wuping County Hospital in Longyan, in China's Fujian Province.
While one was living in his right nostril, the other one was living three centimeters below the glottis, which is a part of the larynx consisting of vocal cords and the opening between them. The leeches were recently removed after they stayed for two months inside his body.?
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The patient was given local anaesthesia after which the leeches were removed with the help of a pair of tweezers. Doctors believe that the man, who works in the wild environment, had taken in predatory worms while without realising, while drinking water from the mountains.??
"When he drank with water [containing the leeches], it was likely that they were very small and undetectable by the naked eye. In the past month or two, the leeches have sucked the patient's blood and grown," Dr Rao Guanyong, director of the respiratory department at the hospital, said.
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The doctor said that the patient is recovering now.?
In another incident, a Kansas City woman felt that there was water in her ear, but later when she went to the doctor she was horrified to learn that the waterlogged feeling was actually caused by a venomous brown recluse spider which was in her ear canal.
Looks like insects are worms are running out of places to live and are finding the human body a rather hospitable option.