Surgeons at Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi were confronted with one of the most unusual and distressing medical emergencies of their careers when a 31-year-old man was admitted with excruciating abdominal pain.
A Bizarre and Dangerous Act
The patient confessed that earlier that day, in pursuit of sexual stimulation, he had inserted a two-foot-long live eel into his anus. The situation quickly escalated from risky to life-threatening.
Medical staff acted swiftly, performing an ultrasound and X-ray. The imaging revealed a horrifying development: the skeleton of the eel was visible inside the man's abdominal cavity, indicating it had migrated from his rectum.
An Unexpected Obstruction in Surgery
A specialised team of endoscopy experts and anaesthesiologists assembled to attempt removal. However, they encountered a second, equally shocking problem. Access via the anus was completely blocked.
The man had inserted a large lemon after the eel, creating an impassable barrier. This bizarre complication forced the medical team to change strategy immediately.
Life-Saving Abdominal Operation
Faced with no other option, surgeons performed emergency abdominal surgery. Upon opening the cavity, they discovered the live eel, measuring roughly 65 cm in length and 10 cm in circumference.
"The eel had bitten through the patient's rectum and colon to escape into the abdominal cavity," explained Le Nhat Huy, vice director of the Department of Colorectal and Perineal Surgery. The team successfully extracted both the eel and the lemon.
The patient was thoroughly examined to ensure no other foreign objects remained before being stitched up. The case serves as an extreme warning about the severe dangers of inserting live animals or objects into the body.
Other Extraordinary Cases of Ingested Objects
This incident is not isolated in the annals of unusual medical emergencies. In a separate case at Sawai Mansingh Hospital in Jaipur, India, a 34-year-old man was admitted with crippling stomach pain.
Scans revealed he had a watch lodged in his oesophagus, along with iron fragments, nuts, and bolts trapped in his large intestine. A complex three-hour operation was needed to remove all items through an abdominal incision.
Furthermore, a 20-year-old woman in Taipei, Taiwan, was found to have a four-inch fountain pen wedged in her stomach after six months of pain. An endoscopy located the pen, which was badly eroded by stomach acid. Doctors warned that leaving it longer could have caused fatal peritonitis.
