Doctors Remove A LIVE Cockroach from Woman’s Skull

What if your headache was something more serious? One 42-year-old woman in Chennai, India went to her doctor complaining of a severe headache that had an “itchy, scratchy feeling to it.” The scary thing was, she was right. When doctors conducted an endoscopy, they discovered something moving around inside her skull. They would later discover it was a live cockroach.

Removing The Cockroach

“We didn’t know what it was,” M.N. Shankar, professor and head of the Ear, Nose, Throat Department at Stanley Medical College, told CNN. “Slowly, we had to pull it out.” The procedure took about an hour but they successfully removed the live cockroach. They even recorded video of the procedure.

How Did The Cockroach Get Inside Her Skull?

So how did the cockroach get inside her head? The working theory is that it crawled inside the woman’s nasal cavity, most likely while she was sleeping. According to Shankar, it “burrowed into the roof of the nose” and worked its way up between her eyes.

Her Recovery

After the removal of the cockroach, the woman’s headache and breathing problems stopped. She’s lucky doctors were able to successfully identify the problem. The cockroach would have eventually died and caused an infection that could have spread to her brain.

So the next time you feel a “tingling” or a “crawling sensation” inside your nose, just think, it might be an insect.

Thank You Nightside Project!

UPDATE: A few days after we published this article it was featured on the popular KSL NewsRadio podcast The Nightside Project. It was fun watching hosts Alex Kirry and Ethan Millard squirm while covering the story.