Chinese man has his colon torn apart by a 16-inch live eel after sticking it into his rear
Chinese man has his colon torn apart by a 16-inch live eel after sticking it into his rear to ‘treat his constipation’
- The man in his 50s went to a hospital in Guangdong after having abdominal pain
- Doctors were shocked to find a 16-inch eel in his body during emergency surgery
- The patient said he inserted the fish into his backside alive to cure constipation
- Surgeons removed the dead creature from his belly after it got stuck for a week
By Emilia Jiang For Mailonline
Published: 06:51 EDT, 22 June 2020 | Updated: 07:04 EDT, 22 June 2020
A Chinese man nearly died after allegedly inserting a wiggling 16-inch eel into his backside to treat his constipation.
The live fish tore through the man’s intestines before dying and getting stuck in his abdomen for a week, doctors said.
The unnamed patient, said to be in his 50s, claimed he decided to use the creature to solve his bowel problems after following a folk remedy.
A Chinese man nearly died after allegedly inserting a wiggling 16-inch eel into his backside to treat his constipation. The picture shows an X-ray scan of the patient in southern China
The patient fully recovered after medics removed the dead fish from the man’s belly, according to a social media post from the hospital. The dead eel is pictured after it was removed in China
The news came to light after the man sought medical attention at the Huangjiang Hospital in Dongguan, Guangdong province, due to severe abdominal pain.
He has fully recovered after medics removed the dead fish from the man’s belly during emergency surgery, according to a social media post from the hospital.
Dr Li from the hospital told the local media: ‘[We] suspected that there was a foreign object in his abdominal cavity from a CT scan. But we couldn’t tell where it came from.’
The patient then underwent an emergency abdominal operation after his condition became life-threatening, the medic said.
The surgeons were shocked to discover the dead eel while conducting the surgery.
Dr Li added: ‘During the laparoscopy procedure, we detected that it was an eel. It had completely entered the abdominal cavity and already been dead.’
The doctor said that the man’s organ had been severely infected and filled with waste matter.
Footage released by Guangdong Television showed the medics removing the 16-inch creature after surgically opening up the patient’s belly.
After the operation, the patient confessed to the doctors that he had inserted the live eel into his rear in a bid to treat his long-term constipation.
But there is no scientific evidence to support the folk remedy the man was following.
The picture shows a screenshot of the footage of the medics at the Huangjiang Hospital in Dongguan removing the 16-inch creature after surgically opening up the patient’s belly
Dr Li said: ‘The eel entered [his body] through anus and rectum. I think it had quickly torn a hole already while [it was] in the colon.’
The doctor said that the man was likely to die if he did not undergo the surgery in time.
‘Because it was a live eel, the possibility of death is very high if the surgery was not done timely,’ the medic added.
The patient was treated in intensive care units for three days and has been discharged, according to the hospital.
The news comes after another Chinese man recently had a 10-inch chopstick lodged in his belly after inserting it into his backside ‘out of curiosity’.
The 68-year-old man from Hubei claimed that he was interested in checking his backside after developing piles.
The patient was discharged from the hospital in late May after medics removed the metal stick from the pensioner’s intestines.
