Doctors save man who swallowed octopus during meal

Agencies | Singapore                  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Doctors in Singapore were shocked to discover an octopus lodged in a man's oesophagus while he was undergoing a gastrointestinal examination to find out why he was vomiting.

When the Singaporean man began vomiting after eating a meal that included raw octopus, he realized something was wrong.

When he realized he was also having a swallowing problem, the man panicked and quickly decided to visit the emergency department at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Doctors there conducted a quick CT scan, which revealed a super-dense mass in the man's oesophagus, but they couldn't be sure what it was without an esophagoscopy, which involves inserting a small, flexible tube with a camera at the end, and discovering that the man had a whole octopus stuck in his stomach.

The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) shared images taken showing the eight-tentacled creature stuck in the man's oesophagus.

At first, the doctors tried the "push technique," but it soon became clear that the octopus would not go down and excessive pressure would rupture the oesophagus.

So they had to use forceps to grab the sea creature and pull it out.

It is not clear why the man swallowed the octopus whole, but fortunately, he recovered well and was released from the hospital two days later.