The woman had visited a volunteer fire station in Guatemala City after experiencing dizziness and headaches. On closer inspection, one of the firefighters made the shocking discovery that he had an entire dead cockroach lodged in his ear cavity.
The unidentified woman visited the fire station in the capital city of the Republic of Guatemala in Central America.
It is believed that he went to the fire station because it was closer to his home than to a medical center.
He had reportedly been suffering from intense headaches and dizziness
When, on closer inspection, firefighters discovered the upset stomach, spokesman William Gonzalez filmed the removal of the bug and posted it online.
Cockroach in the ear; cockroaches can search for food in human ears
According National GeographicCockroaches are one of the most likely insects to get into people’s ears.
A South African hospital removed 24 bugs from people’s ears over a two-year period, and ten of them were cockroaches.
Entomologist Coby Schal of North Carolina State University told the magazine: “It’s actually not an uncommon phenomenon to have a cockroach in your ear.”
Cockroaches are looking for food everywhere, and earwax could be attractive to them.
A cockroach could come in to explore and then get trapped.
A similar case was reported earlier this month when 29-year-old Florida woman Katie Holley saw a cockroach’s legs sticking out of her ear.
It went straight to A&E, where doctors removed what they thought was the entire bug, but Ms. Holley continued to experience ear pain and hearing loss.
She returned to a doctor nine days later and was then referred to an otolaryngologist who removed six more pieces of the cockroach’s body, which had been in her ear canal for more than a week.
Getting an object stuck in the ear can cause pain, infection, and hearing loss.
People shouldn’t use tools to get things out of their own ears
It’s possible for someone to remove an object from their ear on their own, according to the US nonprofit health care organization Mayo Clinic.
But tools or implements should not be inserted into the ear canal in case they push the object further in.
The website suggests tilting your head so the object falls out or, if it’s an insect, pouring a small amount of mineral, olive, or baby oil into the ear could make it float.
However, this should not be attempted in children or if the eardrum may be perforated, which could cause pain or bleeding.
Cockroaches, however, are not the strangest animals that doctors have had to remove from a person’s body.
In 2017, a man in China went to Nanchang University Hospital with severe abdominal pain.
After doctors examined him, an X-ray revealed that he had an eel in his intestine that was causing him severe pain.
When asked by doctors how he got there, the patient refused to answer.
However, doctors concluded that the man had deliberately inserted the eel into his anus while drunk.
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