In a shocking medical case, Vietnamese doctors successfully removed a live eel, measuring two feet in length, from a man’s abdomen. The eel had reportedly chewed through the man’s intestines after he had inserted it into his rectum. The 31-year-old Indian national was rushed to Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi on July 27, suffering from severe abdominal pain.
Upon admission, doctors discovered that the man had inserted the eel into his rectum earlier that day. The eel, in an attempt to escape, had bitten through the patient’s rectum and colon, making its way into the abdominal cavity, according to Le Nhat Huy, the vice director of the Department of Colorectal and Perineal Surgery at the hospital.
The medical team immediately conducted several imaging tests, including an X-ray, which revealed the eel’s skeleton inside the man’s abdominal cavity. Initial attempts to remove the eel through the man’s rectum were unsuccessful due to the presence of a large lime that the patient had also inserted.
Given the complexity of the situation, the doctors decided to perform an emergency surgery. They opened the patient’s torso and found the live eel, which was more than 25 inches long and approximately 4 inches in diameter. Both the eel and the lime were successfully removed.
Post-surgery, the medical team checked for any additional foreign objects inside the man and then stitched him up. They also performed a colostomy to prevent fecal matter from passing through the wound created by the eel’s bite.
Viet Duc Hospital has a history of treating patients, usually young men, who have inserted objects into their rectums for sexual pleasure. The hospital has previously removed objects such as bottles, cups, and adult toys from patients’ rectums. However, this was the first case involving a live animal.
Huy warned about the dangers of inserting live animals into the rectum, stating that eels can survive in anaerobic conditions for a long time and have the ability to bite through the gastrointestinal tract. He cautioned against seeking intense sensations through such dangerous practices due to the unpredictable consequences.
Interestingly, this was not the first instance of an eel being removed from a person’s rectum in Vietnam this year. In March, a 12-inch eel had found its way up a 43-year-old man’s rectum, and was subsequently removed at the Hai Ha District Medical Center in Quang Ninh Province.