7-Year-Old Boy Stuns Doctors by Coughing Up Live Leech in Hospital
A boy in China shocked doctors when he coughed up a live leech during treatment for a cough
Xiaoxiang, Leech, China, Yunnan Province, Hospital
Pu’er: So, get this! A seven-year-old kid named Xiaoxiang ended up in the hospital because he was having trouble breathing. But what happened next was straight out of a horror movie. While getting treated, he coughed up a live leech that was about 12 centimeters long!
At first, he was coughing up blood, which is pretty scary. The doctors gave him a special treatment that turns liquid medicine into a mist for him to breathe in. Then, out of nowhere, he suddenly coughed up this squirming parasite. You can imagine the doctors’ faces!
They quickly checked it out and confirmed it was indeed a live leech. They had to do an electronic bronchoscopy to make sure there weren’t any more creepy crawlies hanging out in his lungs.
Luckily, after a thorough check, they found no other leeches. Leeches are usually found in fresh water, and the one Xiaoxiang coughed up was likely feeding on his blood. They can be a real nuisance!
In this bizarre situation, the leech had somehow made its way deep into his lung, causing a nasty infection. It turns out it had been living there for quite a while.
Leeches have this anticoagulant in their saliva that keeps the blood from clotting, which is why they can be so dangerous. If they hadn’t been able to remove it, it could have blocked his airways and led to suffocation.
Xiaoxiang’s family often visits a river near their home in rural China, and it’s believed that the leech got into his trachea during one of those trips. The warm, moist environment inside his body was just perfect for the leech to thrive.
Thankfully, the doctors did a great job cleaning out his lungs, and Xiaoxiang is now on the mend. What a wild story, right?