Man has cockroach pulled from ear in 10-minute procedure because he didn’t want it in there
So sorry to bring this to your attention, because it’s disgusting, but here you are reading anyway, so let’s continue. The Australian radio station 105.7 ABC Darwin is telling everyone the woe of Darwin, Australia resident Hendrik Helmer, a man who had a 2cm (.79in) cockroach removed from his ear.
On Wednesday, at 2:30 AM, Helmer woke up with an, “excruciating, unbearable pain” in his right ear. He told 105.7, “Upon putting my finger in my ear to see why I couldn’t hear properly, I felt something in there.” But, as soon as the pain had come, it went. He thought maybe an insect was to blame, “didn’t think much more of it” and tried to go back to sleep. 2:30 AM Hendrik felt like it was 8 AM Hendrik’s problem, not his.
However, it was only 15 minutes later, that he felt another “muscle-spasming, crippling” pain and what sounded like “drilling.” Unbelievably, Hendrik tried going back to sleep AGAIN. Finally, after the pain came back, he realized he was going to have to take care of it there and then.
Mr. Helmer then tried a few different methods of getting it out himself, including a vacuum cleaner and pouring water in his ear to flush it out. The water only made things worse, “whatever was in my ear, didn’t like it at all, and the pain that I had before was nothing compared to the pain of when I put the water in my ear.”
Finally he got his roommate to take him to the hospital. What advanced medical technology did a doctor there use to kill the pest? Olive oil. The oil suffocated the cockroach, but not before it burrowed down even further. When it was finally removed with forceps, they measured it out to 2cm.
Will Hendrik change the way he sleeps to avoid this kind of incident again? Nope, though, “friends have since told him they were so freaked out by his experience they have begun sleeping with headphones on or earplugs in.” And now, off to go to curl up into a ball.
More info: ABC
