February 7, 2017

"I could not explain the feeling but I was sure it was some insect. Whenever it moved, it gave me a burning sensation in my eyes."

"'It was a full grown cockroach,' M.N. Shankar, the head of the ear, nose and throat department, told the Times of India. 'It was alive. And it didn’t seem to want to come out.'"
Doctors first tried to use a suction device to remove the cockroach, but the insect clung to the tissues. After a 45-minute process, using suction and forceps, doctors were able to extract the bug, still alive....

Shankar said this was the “first such case” he has seen in his three decades of practice, the New India Express reported. In the past, the hospital’s ENT department has removed a leach [sic], houseflies, and maggots from patients’ nasal cavities. “But not a cockroach, said S Muthuchitra, one of the doctors, “especially not one this large.”
Maybe you are more attuned to the delicacies of the correct spelling of the leech you don't want in your ear, but for you hardier souls, I found this video, which I haven't had the nerve to watch through yet:



ADDED: If there's a "Top 6 Removing Bugs in Ears Video," I'm not so sure this post deserves my "strange medical condition" tag.

23 comments:

Laslo Spatula said...

First: a kin of Sir Archy?

Not as bad as Dudley Moore and Peter Cook pulling lobsters out of Jayne Mansfield's ass.

Derek and Clive.

I am Laslo.

Meade said...

Where's AETP on this? Animals for the Ethical Tunneling of People.

Sydney said...

Before I could see your video on my screen, I was thinking it isn't all that uncommon to find bugs in ears. Never saw one in a nose, though. Have pulled cockroaches out of ears.

David said...

He was bugged. Putin strikes again.

Paco Wové said...

"During this trip Speke, marooned on an island, suffered severely when he became temporarily deaf after a beetle crawled into his ear and he tried to remove it with a knife."

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I didn't need to eat breakfast this morning anyway.

Bob Boyd said...

The roach thought it was in a sanctuary skull.

Unknown said...

No...no....just no!!! Would rather have you run your fingernais on frosted glass! Ahhhh...R'lyeh....Cthulhu...Nyarlathotep!!!!!

SayAahh said...

That's the fun part of the job I did for 30 years.
It is easy to look like a hero.

traditionalguy said...

Bugs in the ear irritates everybody.

Caroline said...

I am from New Orleans, where tales of the horrors extracted from assorted human orifices By those on duty at Charity Hospital (now closed) are not infrequent. Roaches were frequent offenders.

Curious George said...

I'd rather have that bark skin I think.

Clyde said...

The Bronx Zoo has a program where for ten dollars, you can have a Madagascar hissing cockroach named after a loved (?) One for Valentine's Day. Really. For an additional amount, you could send a plush stuffed cockroach as well as the certificate. Sadly, they have already sold out of plush cockroaches. The early bird gets the roach.

tcrosse said...

That's what comes of allowing cracker crumbs and potato chips to accumulate in the inner ear.

Heartless Aztec said...

One word: hurl

Unknown said...

Like Caroline, I've experienced the horrors of N'Awlins cockroaches and heard horror stories from Charity Hospital.

I do recommend the Bunny Matthews cartoons though (might be of interest to those who've been talking about Sir Archy lately.

Also recommend the Insectarium museum in N. O., complete with a wonderfully disgusting cockroach exhibit.

Regarding orifices, thankfully the worst real life experience was just a round piece if gum that my one year old son put up his nostril. Unfortunately painful for him because it was mint, and I couldn't retrieve it because it was smooth and round-had to go to ER where they used a loop.

Professionally (vet) I've had surprisingly little experience- much more with ingested foreign bodies than in other orifices. A couple of interesting things involving the oral cavity- round soup bones stuck around the lower jaw, lots of sticks embedded in the palate, and one dog who presented with a rubber ball stuck in his throat- which luckily had a hole through the middle that enabled him to breath until I was able to dislodge it.

AllenS said...

3 days after I returned from Viet Nam, I went to the closest doctor's office and had my right ear flushed because of the amount of wax flowing out of it. In that pan of wax and hot water was a bug about an eighth of a inch. Dead.

PB said...

My personal story:

I took my son (at about age 12) in for a check-up and his pediatrician gives him the usual routine, but when he looks into his right ear (with otoscope), he stops and goes, "Huh. I've never seen this before." He leaves the room to go get a special instrument, comes back, delicately inserts the instrument guided by the otoscope and slowly pulls out a whole bee! Dead and dried out, but a whole bee. Wings, legs and all. The doc asks my son when this happened and my son replied that some months ago he had some itching and buzzing in that ear, but it eventually stopped.

True story.

Jamie said...

Dear God.

virgil xenophon said...

There is an old episode of the Night Gallery in which a man, desiring another mans wife, decides to kill him, having his accomplice place an earwig in his ear which will burrow into his brain, causing unbelievable pain and ultimate death. However his accomplice mistakenly enters the wrong bedroom and places it in his own ear. He subsequently endures horrible pain, but miraculously survives when the bug finally crawls out the other ear. However he is not home free. The attending physician tells him that the bug had been both female and pregnant!

(The premise is based on fact. The New World Screwworm fly[Cochliomymia Hominivorax] is a notorious livestock pest which occasionally seeks out humans as a host. The pregnant fly seeks out an open wound of a warm blooded animal to lay her eggs. Within 24 hrs the eggs hatch into tiny larvae that feed on living tissue and bodily fluids.)

Wince said...

KHAAAAAAN!!!

Fernandinande said...

"I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in my brain, because later you might think you're having a good idea but it's just eggs hatching." -- J.H.

Mark said...

Thanks! Now I have a brand-new phobia!