11-year-old American boy's hand "grew" a sea snail
American doctors found a sea snail on a boy's hand, a parasitic mollusk, after the boy was injured in a lake.
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| The BMJ journal described the unique case in medical literature. |
The mollusk grew slowly in the 11-year-old's wound until a pediatrician in Los Angeles incised the abscess and found it. At that time, the snail was 4 mm in size.
The child was amazed and asked to pet the snail, but the mollusk only lived for one more day.
In the BMJ article, the doctors stressed that this case demonstrates the need to surgically drain the abscess and carefully study the medical history of similar cases in the future.
