A Refreshing Mountain Rinse Left This Man With a Nose Leech and Days of Bleeding

A 38-year-old man’s chronic nosebleeds had an especially bloodcurdling cause. In a recent case report, doctors in China describe how the man had gotten a leech stuck up his nostril.

Doctors at the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine detailed the real-life vampiric tale this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, complete with a close-up photo of the bloodsucker. The man likely contracted the nosy offender after splashing his face with mountain spring water. Happily, the doctors were able to remove the leech with no lasting complications.

Mountainous peril

According to the report, the man visited an otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat) clinic 10 days into having nosebleeds from his right nostril.

The man’s nose bled a few drops every hour, and he produced “blood-tinged” mucus whenever he spat or coughed. The doctors’ physical exam confirmed the bleeding right nostril, and an endoscopy soon revealed the leeching culprit. To add to the body horror, the leech was very much still alive upon its discovery, as it tried to wriggle away from the light of the endoscope.

Most species of leech live in freshwater, and that’s probably where the man caught his parasite. Twenty days before he visited the doctors, he had gone mountain climbing. At some point, he washed his face with spring water, and somehow, the leech must have swum up his nose and latched on for dear life, according to the report.

The doctors noted that nosebleeds can be caused by many things, including foreign bodies and tumors (benign or not). They added, with apparent complete sincerity, that leeches are far down the list of usual suspects, though not unheard of.

“Nasal leeches are an uncommon cause, for which swimming in stagnant water or washing with or drinking untreated natural water are risk factors,” they wrote.

A happy ending

Terrifying as the prospect of a nose leech is, the doctors easily remedied the situation.

They gave the man local anesthesia and fittingly used a suction catheter to pull out the bloodsucking creature from the man’s nose, fully intact. The procedure went smoothly, with no adverse effects. And at a follow-up visit a week later, the man and his nose had no “residual symptoms.”

I’m assuming the doctors meant that he had no lasting physical symptoms. Because personally, if I found myself infested with a nose leech, I don’t know that I’d be able to swim in or use any body of natural freshwater ever again. On the other hand, it could have been worse; at least he didn’t end up having a spider or tick crawl up his ear. You know what? Just to ease my paranoia, I’m going to look into buying some comfortable nose and ear plugs.