E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSHeard the one about the Chinese man with an eel in his bladder? It’s the story zooming around the Internet today and while it seems incredible, and while we can’t confirm that it’s true, it is possible even if highly unlikely.
According to the story, a man went to a spa in China where he dunked himself in a tank of fish. The object of this seemingly bizarre exercise was to allow the fish to nip away at dead skin, a kind of fishy loofah. Pricey spas in the West have actually adopted this practice for use on clients’ feet.
Anyway, all was well until he felt a sharp pain in his penis. Naturally he rushed himself to a clinic where an eel was extracted from his bladder.
While the truth of this story cannot be confirmed, there are medical reports of critters crawling or swimming up the human urethra and finding their way into the bladder.
In India, for instance, doctors found a leech that had wriggled its way into the bladder of a 16-year-old boy. Apparently the leech entered while the boy was partially submerged in a rice paddy. After suffering with unexplained fevers and the feeling of urgently having to urinate for two months, the boy was taken to the doctors who eventually had to operate to remove the creature.
The most famous stories of a fish swimming into a human come from the Amazon with the famous (or infamous) candiru, a class of tiny parasitic catfish. Normally these fish attach themselves to the gills of other fish, or dead or dying creatures, and grab a quick meal, but supposedly, goes the legend, the fish are also attracted to a urine stream. Pee in the water, and they’ll follow the stream into your urethra. (I heard this tale from British scientists – ichthyologists -- I followed into the Brazilian Amazon for a story and when they told me this tale, as I was floating in a river and peeing, they laughed their heads off.) Actual cases are almost impossible to find, however, with most reports coming second or third hand.
In 2007 Indian doctors reported a case of a small fish in the bladder of a 14-year-old boy. The boy claimed he was cleaning a fish tank and decided use the bathroom while still holding one of his fish. Somehow, the fish escaped his hand and wound up in his penis.
Doctors decided the boy was making it up as a cover for auto-erotic stimulation, the cause of most lost objects in human urethras, including, perhaps, candirus.
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
That is creepy. I still don't know how a large fish like an eel manages to fit inside the opening of a penis in order to make its way into someone's bladder. It doesn't seem possible so I'd have to say it must be fiction. Until I see proof, I won't believe it, but maybe the best people to ask about whether this can be true are the MythBusters.
I don't know if I'd want to see MythBusters test that theory out though...
There are very small eels, and then there is the young of course. @^@
Would you really like to see proof. I would rather take their word on it.
I shoved a goldfish in my a** when i was drunk a few years back.
How come there has been no reports of fish entering women's vaginas? one would think that that would be a easier place for them to enter since it has a bigger hole.
Hey, the vagina is not the "bladder" entrance! Urethas lead to the bladder, not the cervix woumb and ovaries, ding dong!
The vagina may not be the bladder entrance, but it is still a possible entrance for fish to swim into if a woman is swimming in the nude. I'm I right? and women also have larger urethas than men too.
No... no we don't... A man's uretha is longer and wider. A woman's is shorter (hence easier UTIs) and smaller. The vagina "collapses" when not in use, or not in the proper position.
Besides, women swim with their legs closed.
woman aresmarter...nough said.....ha-ha..seriously....If we did relieve ourselves it would be quick and backout of that God knows whats in that water and drying ouselves off, not trying to get it on with the fish maybe or men don't think about what's in the water.....anyway....were different, (most) to take chances with our bodies as men are especially if they've been drinking....
I'm laughing at this whole conversation!I'm a nurse.Never seen an eel,fish or other creature in a penis,vagina,or bladder in 24 years!Yet,I think it is possible.
All crap to get me to this page. Getting tired of these lead ins of fantasy only to find no truth at all.
If I ever see a fish in a bladder I'm getting out of there
I believe it to be true
Anything is possible...I see lots of People walking around with their head up their a$$ all the time.
Most of them belong to the Democratic Party and/or the Sierra Club.
You spelled Republican Party wrong...
Oh, I see we found that once-believed-to-be-mythological creature - the Texas Democrat!
Pirhanas? They're nothin' compared to a pecker hole fish!!
It being an Asian man doesn't surprise me a bit...
The info about the "candiru", or "vampire catfish" of the Amazon is absolutely true. This pencil-sized, nasty little bastard normally attaches, as a parasite, to a fish's gills. The flow from urinating in the water, whether it emanates from men, women, cattle, goats, etc; mimics the effect of a fish's respiration. Consequently, on very rare occasions, the candiru has mistakenly entered the urethra of both animals and humans living in the more remote stretches of the Amazon.
As if that isn't enough to ruin your day, this miserable little nightmare has pectoral (side) spines that it erects to make it all but impossible to remove, as it "gnaws" its way up the urethra toward the bladder, where it attaches; moves; attaches; repeatedly, to the bladder wall. At each "stop", it feeds on the the victim's blood.
The story goes on..... I remember telling an ichthyologist about this gem of a fish, maybe 20-25 years ago. That's the first he'd heard of it, but they are documented now. Look it up if you doubt what I'm saying...... or maybe just go "skinny-dipping" in the Amazon.....;)
So what do they mean by peeing in the water? Peeing while standing in water at least waist deep so the urine stream is totally submerged, or peeing INTO the water (from a boat or the riverbank)?
In a documentary that was shown on one of the major cable TV networks, there was a segment about a documented victim of the candiru. The victim was interviewed, as was the doctor who successfully removed the beastly little bastard from the man's bladder. The doctor showed the specimen, preserved in a jar.
I'm pretty sure that they said he was only "knee-deep" in the water while pissing. So...., to answer your question, according to that program they do swim upstream. I myself, find it hard to believe, so don't blame me; I'm just the messenger.
This would be why Braziliam men wear thongs I guess. Nice & tight to prevent unwanted access.
The funny thing here is that he was operated upon by Dr. Wang.
I know someone who had to go for speech therapy, to a Dr. Yap. I'm totally serious!
Also a podiatrist called Dr. Footer and there is a dentist in Canada with the last name DiCay. I guess that beats Lipschitz or Snotgrass, Also real names. Can you guess which one is the lawyer?
double post
Snapshot just before the eel entered...
8==D~
Jeremy Wade was able to confirm an actual occurrence of a Candiru catfish swimming into a man who was urinating in the Amagon. He talked to the doctor who removed the fish from the man and later saw the actual Candiru in a speciman jar.
Oops I spelled Amazon wrong in my previous post. I corrected that error in this comment. I forgot to mention that Mr. Wade also found and talked with the man who was the victim of the Candiru invasion. He told Jeremy what happened and showed him the spot where it happened.
Fishy Loofah--was he the vice-president of Bolivia, or left-fielder for Cleveand?
....if you were a fish...would YOU want to swim into one?
....it's like going home for a visit.
I had hand surgery by a Dr. Hand and also had my teeth worked on by a dentist named Dr. Pain
When I was a teenager I had a dentist named Dr. Aiken.
He was well named.