Surgeons in Vietnam performed a critical rescue by extracting a 30-centimeter eel still alive from a patient’s abdominal cavity, where it had caused serious intestinal damage.
On March 20, a 34-year-old man was admitted to the Hai Ha District Medical Center, located in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, with severe abdominal pain. The severity of the pain prevented effective communication about the symptoms, leading the medical team to perform X-ray and ultrasound examinations.
The results indicated the presence of a foreign body in the abdomen, accompanied by intestinal perforation and peritonitis. Given the urgency, we opted for immediate surgical intervention to remove the object and repair the intestinal damage. To the surprise of the surgeons, when they accessed the abdominal cavity, they found the eel, which still showed signs of life.
After extracting the eel, the medical team carefully removed a necrotic portion of the patient’s colorectal intestine, a complex and high-risk procedure due to potential contamination in the rectal region.
Dr. Pham Manh Hung told local media: This is a rare case, the rectum is a place with a lot of fecal matter and prone to infections.”
The surgery was performed successfully, and the patient reached a stable condition, reporting only mild postoperative abdominal discomfort. He currently remains under hospital observation.
When asked about the eel’s possible trajectory to his abdomen, the 34-year-old patient did not provide a conclusive explanation. However, the medical team suspects that the animal was introduced through the anus, and soon after advanced through the colon, perforating the intestine and entering the abdominal cavity. The most surprising aspect for health professionals was realizing that the eel was still alive at the time of discovery.
This unusual incident, together with the photograph of the eel being removed from the patient’s belly, evokes images worthy of a science fiction film, reminiscent of the iconic scene of a xenomorph emerging from the abdomen of its human host in the Alien franchise.
