A 33-year-old man from China who sought emergency medical help for severe abdominal pain shocked doctors when scans revealed a live, foot-long eel inside his abdominal cavity.
According to reports, the patient arrived at the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Medical University looking pale, sweating heavily, and complaining of intense stomach pain. A CT scan showed a foreign object had punctured his stomach and migrated into the abdominal cavity. With his abdomen already hard and rigid, suggesting dangerous peritonitis, doctors opted for emergency laparoscopic surgery.
During the procedure, surgeons were astonished to discover a live eel actively swimming among the man’s organs. The eel had completely breached the intestinal wall, creating a serious risk of infection if not removed quickly.
Using surgical tools, the medical team successfully extracted the eel, repaired the hole in the sigmoid colon, and cleansed the abdominal cavity with saline solution to prevent infection.
Following the surgery, the man recovered and was later discharged. Details about what happened to the eel afterward were not disclosed.
The eel, typically found in muddy waters like paddy fields, ponds, and streams, is known for burrowing through soft earth and, in rare cases, can penetrate human intestines under certain conditions.
Doctors did not confirm how the eel ended up inside the man’s colon, leaving room for speculation online. “Everyone knows how it got in,” one person commented, while another joked, “He must’ve sat on it accidentally.”
