A man has died after a live eel was inserted into his bottom for a joke, according to recent reports.
The 59-year-old chef from Sichuan in China had apparently passed out after a heavy bout of drinking and friends inserted a 50cm Asian swamp eel into his rectum for a bit of fun.
However, the joke wasn't so funny when the man died after suffering severe abdominal pains. Doctors who performed a post mortem on him found the eel in his rectum where it had reportedly gnawed at his intestines, causing heavy internal bleeding.
Practical Fishkeeping reported a very similar story last year in which a medical journal revealed that surgeons had removed a live eel from a man's rectum.
The man had suffered from rectum, intestine and spleen damage following the insertion of a 50cm swamp eel which he claimed was introduced to "relieve constipation."
The eels are not the only fish to have been removed from patients. In 2008, Practical Fishkeeping exclusively reported that doctors had removed a live fish from a boy's penis after it "slipped" into his urethra while he was holding the fish in his hand, while simultaneously urinating and maintaining his aquarium.