China - In a horrifying urban legend come true, a spider was discovered to have made a home in a Chinese woman's ear canal for five days before doctors extracted it.
Local news media reported that the woman, only identified as Ms Lee, went to Changsha Central Hospital of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery on August 8 complaining that her ear was itchy.
When Dr Liu Sheng shone a light down the woman's ear, he got a huge shock - there was a spider staring straight back at him.
The tiny spider had apparently crawled into her ear canal when she was asleep.
Doctors then decided to pour a saline solution into the canal to encourage the spider to crawl out of its own accord, rather than force it out.
According to the report, extracting the live spider would have resulted in the arachnoid digging its barbs deeper into her flesh and causing potential damage. Dr Liu said that the woman avoided harm by not inserting anything into her ear to scratch the itch.
However disgusting and incredible this might sound, it is certainly not the first time insects have made homes in human cavities.
Earlier this year, a young boy was rushed to hospital after a cockroach crawled into his ear while he was asleep and became stuck in the narrow canal.
The boy had been complaining about about a pain in his ear for about two days. After a check by doctors, a tiny baby cockroach was discovered scrambling about in his ear.
The doctor eventually used one per cent lidocane, an anesthetic, to drown the roach before extracting it.
In another bizzare case, a Colorado boy woke up screaming from his sleep when a moth crawled into his ear during the dead of night.
Doctors eventually pulled out the moth from 12-year-old Wade Scholte's ear - alive. They later placed it in a cup and gave it back to the boy as a keepsake
Local news media reported that the woman, only identified as Ms Lee, went to Changsha Central Hospital of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery on August 8 complaining that her ear was itchy.
When Dr Liu Sheng shone a light down the woman's ear, he got a huge shock - there was a spider staring straight back at him.
The tiny spider had apparently crawled into her ear canal when she was asleep.
Doctors then decided to pour a saline solution into the canal to encourage the spider to crawl out of its own accord, rather than force it out.
According to the report, extracting the live spider would have resulted in the arachnoid digging its barbs deeper into her flesh and causing potential damage. Dr Liu said that the woman avoided harm by not inserting anything into her ear to scratch the itch.
However disgusting and incredible this might sound, it is certainly not the first time insects have made homes in human cavities.
Earlier this year, a young boy was rushed to hospital after a cockroach crawled into his ear while he was asleep and became stuck in the narrow canal.
The boy had been complaining about about a pain in his ear for about two days. After a check by doctors, a tiny baby cockroach was discovered scrambling about in his ear.
The doctor eventually used one per cent lidocane, an anesthetic, to drown the roach before extracting it.
In another bizzare case, a Colorado boy woke up screaming from his sleep when a moth crawled into his ear during the dead of night.
Doctors eventually pulled out the moth from 12-year-old Wade Scholte's ear - alive. They later placed it in a cup and gave it back to the boy as a keepsake
