Doctors find Octopus stuck in man’s throat in Singapore

Have you ever imagined an animal like an octopus or squid stuck inside your oesophagus or food pipe? It’s even scary to imagine. But a man went through such a situation when an octopus got stuck in his throat. The eight-legged water animal got stuck in his oesophagus or food pipe in Singapore. The anonymous patient went to the hospital complaining of vomiting after having a meal that included the octopus.

The incident took place in 2018 when the 55-year-old man came to Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore with acute onset of dysphagia after a meal. The doctors conducted a CT scan which revealed a super-dense mass in the man’s food pipe.

An esophagogastroduodenoscopy – a gastrointestinal examination involving a small, flexible tube – later revealed the octopus lodged 5 cm in his food pipe.

Initially, the octopus was tried to extract by pushing the food bolus. However, the extraction was unsuccessful. Later it was taken out carefully past the food bolus into the stomach and retroflexed. Following this procedure, the doctors used forceps to grasp the octopus head, gently pulling the eight-legged creature out of the patient’s body. The man recovered well after the procedure and was discharged after two days.

This was not the first time when an octopus got stuck in someone’s food pipe or oesophagus. Earlier, in 2016, a two-year-old boy was hospitalised in Kansas after an octopus got stuck in his throat after having a sushi meal.