Feeling Eel?
2004, Hong Kong
A 50 year old man admitted to the emergency department of Kwong Wah Hospital in Kowloon suffering from abdominal pain had used an odd method of treatment for constipation.
According to a paper from the journal Surgery, doctors diagnosed peritonitis, inflammation of the membranes of the abdominal wall and organs. An abdominal x-ray was ordered in an attempt to discover the cause and it showed the shadow of an eel in the man’s rectum.
Emergency surgery was performed. A 50cm eel was discovered biting the splenic flexure of the colon and a 3cm perforation was found over the anterior wall of the man’s rectum. The man lost part of his bowel and required a colostomy.
Further questioning of the patient revealed that he had inserted the live eel into his rectum in an attempt to relieve constipation. He recovered from his ordeal and was released from hospital a week later.
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Source: www.sciencedirect.com, Surgery, vol. 135, 2004, pp. 110-1.
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