On the bright side his constipation problem was resolved after the animal ripped through his intestines.

Late last month in the city of Guanzhou, China, a man with the surname Liu was suffering from what must have been a particularly bad case of constipation. Instead of laxatives or even natural dietary remedies, this 49-year-old turned to a “folk remedy” he had heard about: inserting a live eel into his anus.

Some may be quick to judge this man as “stupid” for believing such things, but he did somehow manage to get a 50-centimeter (20-inch) living eel inside his butt – a task that must have required a certain degree of cunning.

One might say that this traditional remedy worked all too well, because the frightened creature tore right through the man’s intestines and began swimming around his midsection. This was all unbeknownst to Mr. Liu at the time and on the outside resulted in swelling around his midsection for which he went to the hospital. However, he strangely refrained from telling them about the home remedy he attempted earlier.

So of course it came as quite a shock when doctors found a hole in his duodenum and the half-meter-long fish that caused it. After that initial wave of horror passed, they told Mr. Liu that he would need emergency surgery to remove the creature. Time was of the essence for if the fish had broken through the man’s stomach, his life would have been in serious jeopardy.

Mr. Liu continued to play coy with hospital staff saying that the eel had gotten in there, “by accident.” Luckily, they could extract the eel (which by that time had died) and save Mr. Liu. Only then, did he finally come clean and tell them about the treatment.

Needless to say, it was an awful lot of trouble to go through to ease a case of constipation.

▼ A TomoNews Taiwan report and CGI reenactment of the incident

Sadly this is not the only case of eels inside rectums in China in recent years. In 2013 a similarly sized swamp eel was removed from a man’s abdomen after it was inserted for recreational purposes. Even worse, in 2010 a man died when his friend inserted an eel into his anus as a joke and it dealt fatal damage to his internal organs.

So whether its for fun, medical treatment, hazing, or research, do not put an eel, any live creature, or pretty much the bulk of inanimate objects on Earth in there. We can’t stress enough that only bad things will come of it.

Source: Shanghaiist, TomoNews, Guangzhou Daily, Gogo Tsushin

Top image, video: YouTube/TomoNews Taiwan