Posted on 04/08/2005 6:29:53 PM PDT by QwertyKPH
Doctors have removed a leech from the nose of a 55-year-old Hong Kong woman after she swam and washed her face in a stream, a medical journal reported.
The woman went to her doctor complaining of nosebleeds and an occasional sensation that something was blocking her left nostril, the Hong Kong Medical Journal said in its April issue. Her family doctor noticed a "brownish mass" in her nostril but couldn't remove it because of heavy bleeding, the journal said.
The patient was taken to the emergency room, where doctors identified the problem as a bloodsucking leech. They had trouble pulling it out because the 5cm-long invertebrate retracted into the nostril and disappeared, the journal said.
Part of the slimy leech was in a passage of her nasal cavity and a larger segment was in her sinus cavity, the article said.
Doctors used a nasal spray to anaesthetise the dark brown leech that had a sucker on the front part of its body.
"After two minutes, the leech moved slowly out of the antrum [sinus] and was retrieved with forceps," the journal said.
The woman said that one month before her symptoms developed, she swam and washed her face in a stream while hiking. Doctors checked other members of her hiking group and found another leech in the nose of a man who washed his face in the stream, the journal said.
The article said the leech could have caused suffocation if it moved into the patient's larynx, or voice box. -- Sapa-AP
Let me be the first to say...
"What? No pictures?"
Let me be the first to say...
"What? No pictures?"
Thank goodness!
How'd Pelosi fit in there?
How do you not feel a leech in your nose?
I wonder why they didn't burb the thing to make it let go?
Lawyer found in woman's nose. News at 11.
My right nostril is stopped up -- now I'm going to have a nightmare.
Cripes....that sounds worse than the thing that Khan put in Chekov's ear.
True. There are some things even a respectable nose sucking leech won't do.
Booger eating leech.
They inject the location with an anesthetic, so you never feel them. Or something like that. Really,
ACK!
Ugh! Let me ditto that sentiment.
EWWWWW!!
You can pick your nose
You can pick your friends
But you can't pick your friends nose.
That's nice. Friend of yours?
Just a google find.
More information than I need!
I wonder why they didn't burb the thing to make it let go?
They coulda just stuned it. Seriesly. That woulda scarmabled it I am sure!
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