A man in China recently had the horror of having a cockroach stuck in his throat for around three days.
The 58-year-old, who was suffering from constant cough, yellow phlegm and an unpleasant odour in his mouth, visited the Hainan Medical University to get to the bottom of the issue, Chinese news portal Hi News reported.
Deputy Chief Physician of the Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Department Dr. Lin Ling was told that the man felt something crawl into his nostrils while he was asleep and the sensation triggered a not so severe cough thus he did not think much of it.
After that, the patient experienced persistent coughing, accompanied with yellow phlegm and detected a “cockroach-like”, as quoted, smell in his mouth, prompting him to seek medical attention.
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However, the man’s explanation only puzzled Ling, stating that cases of foreign bodies in the bronchial area being rare since the man paid an earlier visit to an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist who found nothing in the upper respiratory tract.
Ling then figured out that the insect could be stuck in the lower respiratory tract, possibly at the trachea to which a CT scan was conducted, revealing a “shadow” in the “posterior basal segment of the right lower lobe”, as quoted, suspected to be a foreign body.
A preoperative bronchoscopy was done straight away to check for any “contraindications”, as quoted, then the patient underwent a surgery the next day where Ling found something with wings in the bronchial tubes, wrapped with phlegm, suctioned off the body, revealing it to be the cockroach.
The patient was reportedly much better after the surgery but a test on the phlegm found that it was infected with Clostridium perfringens, associated with acute gastrointestinal infections hence he was administered targeted medication and expectorant.
He recovered after five days and has been discharged since.
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