One of the most common things doctors have to do is to pull weird things out of different orifices, from both children and fully grown adults. Whether the child put it there on purpose or the patient was unlucky enough to be awoken in the middle of the night with a searing pain, these discoveries never come without a bit of shock and awe.
These 11 things that doctors have pulled from patient’s ears are sometimes terrifying, sometimes quite silly, and all-around surprising.
A man in Australia was rudely awakened by a sharp pain in his ear. He knew something had gotten in there, so he tried to suck it out with a vacuum cleaner. When that didn't work, he finally went to the hospital, where they tried to flush it out with olive oil. That only made matters worse, as the creepy crawler only burrowed further in. Finally, the doctor went in with a pair of forceps and out came a one-inch long cockroach. How does something that big even fit in there?
When a little girl wanted to keep her tooth safe for the tooth fairy, she placed it in her ear, of course. The doctor successfully removed it and had quite the story to tell.
When parents of a preschooler found out that their child might have a dangerous, fast-growing cancer in his ear, they were devastated. When he went under surgery and that was when doctors found that it was actually just a pink barbie shoe. The little boy had stuck in there much earlier, so long ago that tissue had begun to grow around it, causing the tumor-like mass. What a relief!
Parents in China noticed that their young girl had something strange that seemed to be growing in her ear. They took her to the doctor, who was able to remove it quite easily. However, they were shocked that a dandelion could grow to 2cm in her ear canal.
After returning home from a trip to Peru, a 27-year-old woman kept hearing scratching sounds in her ear and began to have intense headaches. Eventually, she underwent surgery, which is when doctors removed screwworm fly larvae, some of which had laid eggs. These maggots usually make a home in wounded or dead mammals and will feast on the flesh. The maggots had chewed a 12cm hole in her ear canal, but she suffered no long-term injury.
When one mom brought her 3-year-old daughter in for her annual checkup, the doctor asked her when she had tubes put in her daughter's ears? The mother was shocked, and replied with a resounding, "Never!" When the doctor did a bit more flushing, bits of green play dough came out, in the same shade that medical grade ear tubes are. You can imagine how confusing this must have been for the mom and the doctor?
A 12-year-old boy from Colorado came to the emergency room screaming and crying with pain in his ear. Doctors took a look and saw that there was a full-sized moth lodged deep in his ear. They tried drowning it and irrigating it to no avail. Finally, they bit the bullet and went in there with a pair of tweezers. When they pulled it out it was still alive, and began flying around the room!
A young boy told his grandmother that he accidentally snapped a pencil in his ear a week before. When the doctor pulled the item out of his ear, he revealed that it was actually a watch battery. Fibbing never pays, my child!
Kids tend to stick stuff wherever they can manage. This time, a young boy stuck a Lego in his ear and had to be sedated in order for the doctor to get it out.
When a woman in China had an incessant itch in her ear for five days, she headed to the doctor to get it checked out. There, they found a teeny spider that had made a home in her ear. The doctors used a saline solution to wash him out, and the woman burst into tears of relief when the doctors told her the intruder had been evicted.
A patient came in with a tickling in his ear. When the doctor was finally able to pull out the culprit, it was a sizable cricket that had made a home in his ear.
