Indian Man In Vietnam Inserts Live Eel Into Anus, Gets His Colon Eaten By It; Docs Find Lemon Inside Too

A 31-year-old Indian national narrowly avoided a fatal outcome after inserting a live eel, approximately 65 cm long, into his anus.

The incident led to emergency surgery at Việt Đức Hospital in Hà Nội.

Photo Credit: X

On July 27, the patient was admitted to the hospital's emergency department in severe abdominal pain.

Medical examinations, including imaging and ultrasounds, revealed "a radiopaque skeleton lying horizontally in the abdominal cavity from left to right," indicating the presence of a foreign object.

Upon further questioning, the patient disclosed that he had inserted a large eel into his anus earlier that day.

Lê Nhật Huy, Deputy Director of the Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Surgery Centre at Việt Đức Hospital, explained that an initial attempt to remove the eel via colonoscopy was unsuccessful.

As the patient's pain intensified, the medical team opted for emergency surgery. During the procedure, the doctors discovered a live eel, approximately 65 cm long and 10 cm in circumference, in the patient's abdominal cavity.

"The eel had bitten through the patient's rectum and colon to escape into the abdominal cavity," Huy noted.

Following the removal of the eel, the doctors also extracted a lemon through the anus.

After ensuring no other foreign objects were present, they sutured the perforations in the rectum and colon.

However, due to the high risk of infection from fecal contamination in the abdominal cavity, the doctors created a colostomy to prevent feces from passing through the freshly sutured areas.

According to the hospital, this is not the first instance of objects being inserted into the rectum, but it is the first involving a live animal.

Huy issued a warning: "Eels can survive in anaerobic conditions for a long time and have the ability to bite through the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, people should never insert live animals through the anus to seek intense sensations due to the unforeseeable consequences."