A man who is 31 years old put a live eel up his butt. He had to get emergency surgery because the eel bit through his intestines and got stuck in his belly.
He was living in Vietnam.
The man went to Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi on July 27. He was in a lot of pain.
Doctors did some tests and an ultrasound scan. They found “a radiopaque skeleton lying horizontally in the abdominal cavity from left to right,” according to The Straits Times.
The eel, over two feet long, got into his abdomen after he inserted it into his backside for what the doctor called an “intense sensation.”
Le Nhat Huy, deputy director of the Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Surgery Centre at Viet Duc Hospital, explained that “the eel had bitten through the patient’s rectum and colon to escape into the abdominal cavity.”
Doctors tried to remove the eel with a colonoscopy but failed. They had to call in endoscopy experts and anesthesiologists.
As the man’s pain grew worse and risk of death loomed, they performed emergency surgery. They removed the eel and also found a whole unpeeled lime (photos here).
Due to infection risks from fecal matter and contamination, doctors did a colostomy. This procedure diverts feces away from the newly sutured perforation.
“Eels can survive in anaerobic conditions for a long time and have the ability to bite through the gastrointestinal tract,” said Dr. Nhat Huy.
“Therefore, people should never insert live animals through the anus to seek intense sensations due to the unforeseeable consequences.”
The hospital has removed wind-oil bottles, glass cups, and adult toys from patients’ rear ends before. But this was their first time removing a live animal.