A woman in China who went to Changsha Central Hospital was in for a surprise when she sought help for an itch in her left ear. Doctors removed a spider from her ear canal that had been living inside her for five days.
The woman, referred to only as Ms. Lee, arrived at China’s Changsha Central Hospital of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery on Aug. 8, RedNet News notes.
She complained of an itchy ear and was hoping doctors could treat her.
When Dr. Liu Sheng took a look inside, he found a spider living in the woman’s ear canal. Apparently, the spider had crawled into Ms. Lee’s ear while she slept.
The doctor and his colleagues decided to force the spider out of the woman’s ear canal with a saline solution, as they worried that attempting to take the living spider out with equipment would only cause it to drill its barbs deeper, the report notes.
After the story and photo had been released and re-posted to the internet, readers began sharing similar stories and pictures. “The insects are probably entering the canal as harborage, for heat, and/or for moisture,” Philip Koehler, an entomology professor at the University of Florida told a reporter from Huffington Post.
