Surgeons removed different types of tumors and foreign bodies in their patients; it is routine for them. But some cases are really shocking even for the most experienced medical professionals. From living fish to growing plants, discover the strangest things surgeons find inside patients.
7. Huge LIVE Fish Removed from Man’s Intestine
Last year, November 2014, the medical community was shocked after surgeons found and removed in the intestines of a Brazilian man a huge live lungfish, a South American freshwater fish that looks like eel.
Measuring about 2 ft long (60.96 centimeters), the fish was alive during and after the surgical procedure, and can be seen wiggling around. In a frightful short clip, you can clearly see the surgeon pulls it out, and the nurses are heard laughing and cheering.
The man has refused to tell how the aquatic animal ended up living in his intestine. For now, it remains a mystery. The eel-like creature was later put to death (euthanized), according to the Brazilian news.
Fortunately, the Video was leaked and available on the internet, which allows us to have the raw footage and share it with you. Please watch the following few seconds of the clip.
6. Pea Tree Growing Inside Man’s Lung
This is another sensational diagnostic finding. A 75-year-old Massachusetts man, Ron Sveden, had severe pain in his left lung. As the pain was getting worse, he was rushed to hospital. Since Sveden suffers from emphysema, his family thought it was some complication or lung cancer.
However, diagnostic reveals he has a collapsed lung and an abnormal growth which is not typical to emphysema or lung cancer. Further examination confirmed the mass is not malignant; therefore, Ron has no cancer. Instead, a small pea plant was growing in his lung.
Everyone was shocked, including his doctor. The plant was surgically removed, and all the pain was gone. It is believed Mr. Sveden ate the pea at some point, but it “went down the wrong way” and sprouted.
During an interview with a local Boston TV reporter, Mr. Sveden says, “One of the first meals I had in the hospital after the surgery had peas for the vegetable. I laughed to myself and ate them.”
5. Fir Tree inside Man’s Lung
In 2009, a Russian man, Artyom Sidorkin, started having severe chest pain. Within days, the condition complicated to coughing up blood. He then decided to see a physician. Health professionals perform imaging techniques; and X-ray reveals a mass that looks like a tumor.
The surgeons thought Artyom Sidorkin has lung cancer. As it is often the case lately, the doctors were sure the patient had a malignant tumor. One of them, Vladimir Kamashev, said, “We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumor… We were 100 per cent sure.”
But Dr. Kamashev was wrong this time; Mr. Sidorkin did not have cancer but a 5cm FIRE TREE that has been growing inside his lung. Dr Kamashev said, “I thought I was hallucinating. I asked my assistant to have a look: Come and see this – we’ve got a fir tree here”.
4. Eel In Chinese Man’s Rectum
This is a sad case. In 2010, a 59-year-old Chinese man starts experiencing severe abdominal pain associated with anal bleeding and other complications. His family took him to hospital. Surgeons performed a diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of the problem, possibly a tumor or a damaged organ.
Shockingly, they found a live 20-inch eel inside him. The animal badly damaged his intestine, causing the pain and bleeding. The surgeons successful removed the eel, but the intestinal damage was so severe that the man died 10 days after the surgical procedure.
His case was not accidental. It is reported that days earlier the man had been out drinking with friends. While he fell unconscious they inserted the live eel into his anus. What they were doing as a joke was his death sentence.
While this man was accidentally killed by his friends, another man in China’s southeastern Guangdong province allegedly inserted an eel into his anus after seeing it done in a porn movie. He survived but facing animal cruelty.
3. 57 maggots Found in A Patient’s Ear
Doctors found 57 maggots in the ear of a 92-year-old Alzheimer patient who was at the “Home for the Aged”, a nursing home in Arlington Heights. The patient, Catherine McCann, who is unable to talk, kept scratching and pulling on her ear, which led caregivers there to rush her to a hospital.
After medical exam 57 maggots were found in the patient’s ear. Although it is not clear, doctors believe a fly might have flew into Catherine ear and laid their eggs. The physician said the infestation was recent, about two days only.
The family of the patient has sued the nursing home due to negligence. Catherine’s husband, John McCann who is 88, says he pays $10,000 a month for his wife to receive the best care possible; this is unacceptable. He further comments, “I’m paying all this money for that kind of care, no way…”
2. 50 Live MAGGOTS Removed from Man’s nose
A 55-year-old Indian man was constantly experienced nasal infection, in addition to other medical conditions he had. He went to see a doctor and what found inside his nose is astonishing, 50 live maggots stuck up his nostril.
Although it is not sure how the infection occurred, it is believed a fly might have laid eggs in or around his nose and they hatched into maggots. They survive by eating the man’s flesh, and possibly his bone. Without proper removal, they would eventually lead to his death.
He underwent an endoscopic procedure to get the maggots removed to stop them eating into his eyes. Dr Meenesh Juvekar successfully removed the beats and relieved the man from the nasal blockage which had made his life a nightmare. He is completely recovered after the procedure.
1. A 10-Pound Hairball Removed from Woman’s Stomach
An 18 year old woman has a history of abdominal pain for over 5 months. Finally the condition led to complications: abdominal distention, postprandial emesis, and a serious weight loss of 18 kg. To determine the cause of the illness, diagnostic procedures were recommended.
During Physical exam, the physician felt the presence of a firm mass in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen of the teenager. Computed tomography revealed a large gastric mass which extends from the fundus to the antrum of the stomach, without indication of any gastric outlet obstruction (GOO).
The physician questioned the young woman about her medical history and lifestyle. Shockingly, she confesses to suffer from trichophagia, a condition which causes an individual to chew and then swallow hair.
A surgeon performs a surgical intervention to remove the mass. According to the New England Journal of Medicine a (trichobezoar) hairball which weighs 10 pounds and measured 15 inches by 7 inches by 7 inches, was removed from the stomach of the patient.