CHENNAI – A Live Cockroach Inside Woman’s Skull Removed after 12 hours after she felt a “burning” headache has astounded medics.
Selvi, from Injambakkam, India, said she was woken up in the night suffering from a “burning” feeling in her head, and a “crawling sensation” in her right nostril.
Doctors were stunned when scans revealed a cockroach was sitting in the skull base between her eyes.
Believing the insect had crawled in through her nose, doctors had to perform a 45-minute extraction, eventually removing the cockroach with clamps.
If she had ignored the pain, experts believe, the insect would have died and caused an infection close to her brain.
The 42-year-old, who does not want to give her full name, said she felt a “tingling and crawling sensation. Whenever it moved, it gave me a burning sensation in my eyes.”
“My immediate reaction after feeling that crawling sensation in the right nostril was to brush it off in half sleep.
“But before I could do anything, it went inside. I could not explain the feeling but I was sure it was some insect.”
Her son rushed her to the nearest clinic, but claimed nobody could find anything wrong.
The following day, still feeling unwell, Selvi went to the state-run Stanley Medical College Hospital, in Chennai, southern India, where doctors found the live insect.
Dr Shankar, head of the ENT department at the hospital, said:
“This is the first such case I have seen in my three decades of practice.”
The doctors removed the cockroach using clamps and sucker. “It was difficult to remove it because of the place it was sitting in. I had to first drag it to a place from where I could pull it out. It was finally removed after 45 minutes,” the doctor added.