A 55-year-old man in Bangladesh arrived at the emergency room with severe abdominal pain that had begun five hours earlier. During examination, medical staff discovered an unusual cause: the patient reported that an eel had entered his body through his rectum the previous day. He explained that while wearing a lungi, a traditional garment, the creature had slipped through an opening and into his anal canal. Hoping the animal would exit naturally, he initially delayed seeking medical care.
Imaging revealed troubling complications. An X-ray showed the eel’s silhouette within the abdominal cavity and indicated the development of peritonitis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding internal organs. This condition can rapidly become life-threatening if left untreated. Medical staff noted the patient’s elevated heart rate of 110 beats per minute, though his temperature and blood pressure remained stable. They administered intravenous antibiotics, fluids, and medications to prevent organ damage while preparing for surgery.
Surgeons performed an emergency operation to prevent the risk of septicemia, a potentially fatal blood infection. Through an abdominal incision, they located and removed the nearly 2.2-foot-long eel from the peritoneal cavity. The creature remained alive, suggesting it had punctured through the colon wall into the fluid-filled space to access oxygen. Surgeons then created a colostomy to bypass the damaged section of the patient’s large intestine and prevent further infection from fecal matter.
The patient recovered fully and was discharged four days later without symptoms. Medical experts noted that while foreign objects occasionally penetrate the intestines, cases involving live animals are extraordinarily rare in medical literature.
Originally reported by Livescience →
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