BHUBANESWAR: In a very rare case, doctors at the Ayush Hospital on Tuesday removed a leech from the food pipe of a 21-year-old woman. The leech, which had been unknowingly swallowed by the woman Santoshibala Sahu, who works as a junior engineer with the National Rural Health Mission, had been clinging to her oesophagus for the last few days and sucking blood. Sahu felt the consequences about three days back at her house in Chhendipada in Angul district. She developed severe pain as well as blood vomiting and passage of black stool. The symptoms were indicative of internal bleeding and she was taken to the local hospital from where she was brought to the Ayush Hospital here on Monday night. Apart from normal investigations, endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal tract was planned. During endoscopy, a “clot-like” manifestation was found on one side of the lower oesophagus. The clot was removed endoscopically only to discover that it was a leech. It was dead when brought out but had swollen by sucking blood. It measured around eight to nine centimetres. “The leech was somehow swallowed by the patient, most likely through drinking water at some rural place during her visits. The leech had then clung to her oesophagus and sucked blood. This led to bleeding and resultant blood vomiting and black stool,” said consultant Dr Biranchi Narayan Lenka. The patient was given scelortherapy to contain the bleeding following the extraction of the leech. She is clinically stable now and is recovering well. She will be discharged soon, Lenka said.
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