(LibertySociety.com) – When most people get results from a routine colonoscopy, they don’t expect to hear that a live insect was casually strolling around in their bowels. But that’s what happened to a 59-year-old patient when he woke up from the procedure.
While searching for polyps or anything unusual in the man’s colon, his doctor noticed a tiny yellow ladybug walking around, probably wondering how it ended up in such strange surroundings.
The truth is, nobody knows how it wandered into the man’s intestines and lived to tell the tale.
Back in 2019 during a routine colonoscopy, the doctor found a ladybug living in a man's colon. Aren't they good luck? https://t.co/jV3Pnff3kH
— Wave 92.7 (@WAVE927) August 18, 2021
Typically, enzymes and acids in the digestive system break down almost everything you consume before your body absorbs the nutrients it needs, leaving any waste for removal. So, it’s odd for anything to survive the ride, but a study listed in the US National Library of Medicine posed a theory.
Presumably, the ladybug crawled in the sleeping man’s mouth the night before the procedure. But since he was cleaning his bowels with a colonoscopy prep solution, the insect may have ridden the polyethylene glycol wave past the digestive juices straight to the colon — unharmed.
Luckily, this time it was a harmless little bug. Next time, who knows? But here’s the real lesson: Sleeping with an open mouth might inadvertently be an open invitation for critters to visit.
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