For the past few days, a 23-year-old man was suffering from indigestion and he visited doctors who ran routine tests. What they found in his stomach took them by surprise — inside the man’s small intestine was a cockroach, alive and kicking.
According to Dr Shubham Vatsya, Senior Consultant, Gastroenterology, the patient was unaware that he had consumed the cockroach. “Even we were surprised as to how the cockroach managed to stay intact,” said Dr Vatsya.
“For the last two-three days, the patient was suffering from indigestion and bloating after eating food. It was during routine inspections that we incidentally spotted the cockroach,” added Dr Vatsya.
Doctors then advised an Upper Gastrointestinal (GI) Endoscopy, a procedure that examines the upper part of the GI tract to find out the cause of the abdominal pain and indigestion.
Through this procedure which involves the use of an endoscope with two channels — one for air and water infusion and the other for air suction — the cockroach was removed. “We activated the suction button on the scope, effectively sucking the cockroach into the suction channel, leading to its removal from the body and saving the man’s life,” said Dr Vatsya, who led the team of doctors that assessed the case and removed the insect.
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He added that a live cockroach in the small intestine could have become a life-threatening situation or caused infectious diseases. “So, we immediately proceeded to extract the insect.”
indianexpress.com
