Doctors remove two live leeches from man's nose after he complained of cough

In a bizarre incident, two live leeches were removed from inside a man's nose and throat after he complained of a severe cough. The exact reason behind how the leeches reached his respiratory tract is unknown but it is believed that it was due to the man drinking water from mountain streams.

Lived with 2 leeches inside him for 2 months

For two months a man in China suffered from severe cough because he had two live leeches in his nostril and throat. The unnamed man went to Wuping County Hospital for a check-up where the doctors realised that he had leeches inside him. After an initial CT scan in the hospital's respiratory department that did not show anything that would show a cause for the severe cough, a bronchoscopy was then done to get a better idea. Bronchoscopy is a procedure that allows doctors to examine the patient's lungs and airways.

This test proved more useful than the CT scan as the two leeches were discovered. According to local media, one of the leeches was found in his right nostril and the other about three centimetres below his glottis, the glottis is the part of the larynx that consists of vocal cords and the opening between them. The unknown man was first given local anaesthesia and then the live leeches were removed with a pair of tweezers. According to the doctor, when the patient drank water from the mountain stream, the leeches must have been small and undetectable to the naked eye. The leeches then fed on the patient's blood and grown.

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In a similar incident from China, a man who had undercooked meat is found to later have around 700 tapeworms in his brain, chest and lungs. The man showed symptoms like headaches and seizures before going to the hospital where it was discovered that his body was infested with tapeworms that had already damaged his internal organs.

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