These images show a man’s rapidly swelling throat after he accidentally swallowed a honeybee whose last act was to sting him in the back of his mouth.
The patient named only as Mr Qian, who is from Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province in East China, took himself to hospital following the freak accident on 9th June.
He said it happened when he took a swig of coconut water, which he had left uncapped on his table for about 10 minutes.
Mr Qian felt a sharp pain in his throat and coughed out a honeybee, which struggled for a few moments in a pool of his sweet summer drink before dying.
When his throat began to hurt, he suspected he had been stung by the insect, Mr Qian told his doctor, Hu Xiaohua, who was the on-duty ear, nose and throat specialist at Yuhang District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine on the day of the freak accident.
Mr Qian said he even took his colleague’s advice and drank some ‘baijiu’ – a Chinese grain alcohol with a typical alcohol by volume of between 35 to 60 percent – in order to “disinfect his throat”.
When that that did not work, and his throat hurt so much he could not even swallow water, he sought medical attention.
Doctor Hu said the patient’s severely swelling throat walls could have proved “life-threatening” if they blocked his airway.
She treated him with antihistamines, which helped reduce the allergic reaction to the toxin inside the sting.
The sting itself, which had lodged itself on the back of Mr Qian’s throat, was removed with a pair of tweezers.
The medic said: “I’ve treated many bee stings in many patients, but this is the first time I’ve dealt with one in such a unique location.”
Mr Qian’s symptoms subsided after receiving treatment, and he was discharged soon after that, a hospital report said.
T4/AWR
