Horrifying moment leech crawls into airway of 9-year-old child in Nghe An

Image of a leech blocking a patient's airway through an endoscope. Photo: Tran Hien

According to the patient's family: 2 months ago, after drinking mineral water, the patient had symptoms of coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing, and a feeling of something stuck in his throat, but the family just thought he had common bronchitis.

However, the child's difficulty breathing increased. The family immediately took the patient to the district hospital for examination and discovered a leech in the airway. The district hospital could not handle the situation so they quickly transferred the patient to Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital.

Here, after being examined and re-checked by the doctor, it was determined that there was a foreign object in the patient's subglottis, a leech, and the patient was quickly transferred straight to the operating room.

Doctors from the ENT Department performed a rigid endoscopy and removed a live leech, more than 5cm long.

A leech, more than 5cm long, still alive, was removed from the patient's airway. Photo: Tran Hien

Doctor CK I Doan Nhan Chinh - Deputy Head of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital said: Because the leech lived in the subglottis for a long time, it grew bigger and bigger, sucking blood, causing the patient's bronchial wall to become inflamed, ulcerated, bleeding, and accumulating a lot of pus, blocking the airway. Currently, after removing the foreign object, the patient has escaped the critical condition and is continuing to be monitored and treated at the department.

Mountain people often use water from streams and creeks, so they often have leeches living in their bodies. Leeches orWhen leeches first enter the body through the water in the nose and throat, they are small in size, but after a short time in the body, they will suck blood and grow very quickly.

Doctors recommend that people should not use unsafe water sources from streams and creeks for drinking and daily activities to avoid leeches and ticks entering the body./.