A man went to the hospital because something felt stuck in his throat. Doctors found an entire octopus lodged in his esophagus.
The 55-year-old attended Tan Tock Seng Hospital after vomiting and struggling to swallow following a seafood dinner.
A CT scan revealed a dense mass in his esophagus. An endoscopic examination confirmed what it was, a whole octopus lodged five centimetres from the border between his esophagus and stomach.
Doctors first attempted the standard "push technique," applying force to move the blockage down. It didn't work.
The octopus would not move, and applying more pressure risked rupturing the esophagus.
They then threaded the endoscope past the octopus into the stomach, reversed the camera, and used forceps to grab the octopus by the head and pull it back up and out.
Two days later the man was discharged. The case was published in a medical journal and later reported by the American Gastrointestinal Association, which is where the images originated.
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