A woman in southwestern China had been coughing up blood and suffering from a sore throat for two weeks before she finally decided to go to the hospital because of the symptoms. During an examination there, doctors made an unusual, surprising discovery…
At the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Hospital in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province, the 60-year-old woman reported on Sunday that she had felt like a foreign body was stuck in her throat for a while and she kept spitting up blood. .
Leeches discovered during bronchoscopy
A computed tomography scan showed something lodged in the woman’s windpipe, but doctors were unsure what was visible in the images. Therefore, the doctors performed a delicate bronchoscopy. What they saw during the procedure surprised and shocked them.
The doctors found a leech almost seven centimeters long near the vocal cords. The leech had sucked itself onto the wall of the trachea (see video above). The doctors carefully removed it surgically during the procedure.
Li Xianrong, director of the hospital’s pulmonary department, told Chinese media that the patient had been working in the mountains. She drank water from mountain streams and the leech probably entered her body unnoticed.
The parasite crawled through the esophagus
The doctors assume that after the 60-year-old swallowed it, the parasite crawled through the esophagus to the trachea. The leech then remained there for two weeks, feeding on the woman’s blood during this time.
According to local media reports, the woman recovered fairly quickly from the procedure and was able to leave the hospital the next day.
Source: Krone
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
