A video has gone viral on social media this week, which shows a Vietnamese doctor removing a living cockroach from a woman's ear.
The footage was allegedly filmed by a doctor in Can Tho in Vietnam, who was treating a woman who had been complaining about earache and was worried that an insect had managed to penetrate her ear canal. She could even feel something worming its way inside her orifice.
She allegedly woke up in the middle of the night in bed, with agonising pain in her ear. When the doctor examined her, they discovered to their horror that a large cockroach had crawled into her ear and gotten stuck in there.
Check out the video of the cockroach being removed here:Using a pair of tweezers, and an endoscopic camera, the doctor was able to get a firm grip on the insect which was wedged firmly inside the ear canal, and they slowly managed to tug it out. The entire process took no more than two minutes, and the insect was purportedly still alive when it was pulled out.
Commenting on the creepy-crawly situation in an interview with The Daily Mail, Philip Robinson, president of the British Society of Otology, stated: "I have only had to remove an insect once in 30 years in ENT. It is thought that a combination of the hairs in the entrance to the ear canal and the wax lining the skin serves as a barrier and deterrent to insects and indeed debris getting inside."
He added: "The ear canal actually has its own clearance system, although that is damaged in people who use cotton buds, but would normally transport any dust, debris out form the depths of the ear canal to the outside world over a week or two. However, live insects can get trapped and there are reports of people having spiders walking over their eardrums causing a drumming sensation."
So next time you go to sleep somewhere you suspect might be infested, please consider wearing some earplugs. You'll thank me later!
