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
Gee, a hundred posts and nobody has mentioned her other orifices yet.
When I read the headline I instantly thought it may have been Wendy's chili.
THIS IS CETI ALPHA 5 !!!!!! :)
A very, very lucky woman. What if it would have gone into her brain (not sure if that is possible, but I am assuming since the Egyptians pulled people's brains out through their noses...)
Yuck. Though I can handle bugs I can't see. But, if I wake up one morning and find a roach on me or something, well, it will take me awhile to get back to sleep.
Hey, it is Friday. Take a load off.
I use it; it is great.
I think I will be having ear and nose plugs in the future when I swim...lol
I was sleeping in a top-flight hotel in Acapulco once (The El Mirador), and made the mistake of leaving the windows open to that intoxicating tropical air and sound of the waves crashing on-shore. Awakening in the middle of the night, I also made the mistake of switching on the room lights. There were literally hundreds of crawling critters all over the room, including the bed. LOL!
OH my word. That would freak me out. Like I said, I don't care if bed bugs are eating my dead skin or whatever the heck they do, but if I actually see something eating me, I would freak out.
Man, I guess remember to shut those windows :)
Man this is the GROSSEST,
SICKEST...
most BARF-WRENCHING thing I've heard...
in a VERY LONG TIME!!!
Believe me, I felt every bite.
L
Just want ya'll to know, I've never had so many responses to the articles I post. Who'd a thunk it would be a leech story that brings in the most comments?
" "It's Nostrilitus!" Looks to me like Nostrildamus! "
Well, Rush calls him Henry "Nostrilitus" Waxman. If you call him Nostrildamus, that's OK, too.
Do you have that in video?
"Who'd a thunk it would be a leech story that brings in the most comments?"
Just shows what happens on a Friday night when a bunch of people who have nothing to do get hold of something - unusual.
You can pick your nose.
And you can pick your friends.
But you can't fling your friends across the room.
What are the odds of two people on a trip both getting undetected leeches in their noses from washing their faces in a stream? My guess is that there was some drinking and some bizarre leech-insertion activities going on on this trip.
When you help elect a Dimocrat congress and President.
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