65 centimeters long

Bizarre sex game: man has to have eel removed

Eels often end up on plates, especially in Asia, but it is rather unlikely that they "accidentally" enter the body.

(Bild: AFP/Behrouz MEHRI)

A 31-year-old man in Vietnam is admitted to hospital due to unbearable abdominal pain. The doctors find a live eel in his abdomen. It had probably gotten there through a bizarre sex game.

X-rays immediately made it clear to the doctors why the man from India was in such pain, as reported by "Vietnam News". The images undoubtedly showed an eel skeleton in his abdominal cavity.

Due to the acute danger to his life, a team of endoscopy experts and anesthesiologists from Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi immediately performed a colonoscopy to try to remove the foreign body.

Eel bit into the bowel
They were unable to reach the eel, but the man's pain increased so much in the meantime that emergency surgery was performed immediately. "The eel had bitten through the patient's rectum and colon and entered the abdominal cavity," said Le Nhat Huy, deputy director of the hospital's Center for Bowel and Pelvic Surgery.

The operation was ultimately successful - but the doctors not only found the aquatic animal in the man, but also a lime hidden in his intestines. Before the doctors could stitch him up again, they first had to make sure that there were no more foreign bodies in his intestines. Due to the serious injuries and as a precaution against possible infection, the patient was given an artificial anus.

Not an isolated case
This is not the first time that a man in Vietnam has had a live eel removed from his body. As recently as May, a man had a live eel surgically removed from his rectum. According to reports from the Times of India, the eel had entered the man's body. Doctors successfully removed the eel in an emergency operation.

At the hospital, the man stated that the animal had entered his body unintentionally. The doctors warned of the serious health consequences of such incidents. However, it is no secret that - even in Europe - the strangest things are regularly introduced anally and then have to be surgically removed. It was only in 2022, for example, that news of a Frenchman who inserted a grenade made the rounds - this could also be surgically removed.