A man who went for a routine health check was shocked when doctors found a fly inside him.
The 63-year-old patient had visited hospital for a colon cancer screening when medical professionals made the grim discovery. When they put a camera inside his body, they spotted the insect on the wall of his intestines.
He probably wouldn't have believed them if they didn't snap a picture of the fly, which apparently didn't move even when prodded. And doctors were equally as flabbergasted by the find.
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Doctors say it's an extremely rare thing to happen. The circumstances are quite mysterious, but some theorised whether it had anything to do with what the bloke had eaten.
The patient consumed a meal of pizza and lettuce more than 24 hours before his appointment. He didn't recall seeing a fly, but he may have unintentionally consumed one.
Sometimes, people accidentally eat eggs or larvae laid by flies in food that has been left out. And in rare cases, these can remain in tact and hatch inside the body.
Speaking in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, doctors said: "This case represents a very rare colonoscopic finding.[It is a] mystery on how the intact fly found its way to the transverse colon."
Meanwhile, Matthew Bechtold – the chief of Gastroenterology at the University of Missouri – provided his own theory. He told the Independent that the insect could have entered the man's body through his mouth or backside.
He added: "If from the bottom, an opening must have been created long enough for the fly to fly undetected into the colon and somehow make its way to the middle part of the colon with no light in a very curvy, large intestine. However, this seems unlikely as well."
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