A 10-centimeter live leech lived for more than two months in the windpipe of a 60-year-old Chinese man who probably drank a leech egg along with raw water.
During all this time, a man named Li did not understand where his severe itchy cough of blood came from.
When his condition began to inspire serious concern in him, the man went to the Yibin County Clinic for help.
Dr. Zhang Dadong performed an endoscopy on the patient and suddenly immediately found a thick black leech that was firmly attached to the trachea.
When the problem was identified, the question of removing the leech arose, but it turned out to be no easy task. The leech was slippery and twitching, it was very difficult to capture it.
The video shows the removal of a leech with an endoscope:
The leech was removed after being sprayed with a sedative and then grabbed with forceps.
Promotional video:
Lee is reported to be living in a rural area where there is no running water, and thus the leech could have reached him from a local pond.
Most likely, he swallowed a leech egg, which was stuck in the throat, where a larva soon hatched from it. For more than two months, she fed on human blood and grew to 10 cm.
To prevent this, Dr. Zhang advised to always boil water.