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Doctors Struggle To Remove Live Fish From Inside Man's Throat

Doctors Struggle To Remove Live Fish From Inside Man's Throat

How does this even happen?

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

I imagine, doctors who work in A&E departments are more than used to removing strange objects from places they really shouldn't be. We've all heard the tales. We've all laughed at the excuses, 'well, I was vacuuming, naked...and I, sort of, fell backwards. On to it'.

Well, this story is possibly even more bizarre. Doctors in India had to extract a live fish from a man's throat, as it left him struggling to breathe and unable to speak.

How?

Santosh Dash was fishing in a pond, when he caught the 4-inch climbing perch. It wriggled out of his hands and - somehow - into his mouth. I mean, I guess that's as plausible an excuse as we're going to find here.

The x-ray of Santosh's throat, complete with fish. Credit: SWNS

It was a bad day all round for Santosh, the first hospital he went to were unable to get the live and still wriggling fish out.

So he had to be transferred to a second hospital in Bhuwaneshwar, 200km away from his village, where doctors were able to use forceps and finally remove the creature.

Dr Sanjeev Gupta, a senior consultant of the ENT Department at Apollo Hospital, said he was only able to see the tail of the fish down the man's throat.

They haven't lined this up with the ruler properly, which is making me feel weird, but it's over four inches long. Credit: SWNS

He said: "We took him to the emergency operating theatre where the patient was administered local anaesthesia in the sitting position.

"Mouth gag was applied and the fish was caught with forceps. It was removed with gradual traction."

Lovely. Credit: SWNS

Poor Santosh was left with lacerations to the inside of his throat, due to the fish's fins and was kept on a nasal feeding tube for 10 days following the incident, he has since been discharged.

The fate of the fish was not reported, but if that photo of it lying next to the ruler is anything to go by, I think we can safely say it wasn't a happy ending for the little bugger.

Featured Image Credit: SWNS

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