We've all heard the one about people eating a spider while they sleep or creepy-crawlies going somewhere they shouldn't while we snooze ufffd but for one poor woman the urban legend has come true.
She arrived at China’s Changsha Central Hospital with an itchy ear, only to learn the cause was a spider that had crawled into the ear canal.
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To make things worse, doctors believe the arachnid had been in there for five days. Fortunately for the woman, there was some good news — doctors told her the problem would have been far worse if she had tried to scratch it.
At first the medics planned to use tweezers to grab the spider and pull it out — but they were worried that creature might bite the patient.
Instead, Dr Liu Sheng and his colleagues poured a saline solution into the ear and waited for the spider to leave on its own. Fingers crossed it didn’t lay any eggs...