NEW DELHI: Ophthalmologist at Fooyin University Hospital in Taiwan baffled after they found four live bees living inside a woman’s eye and feeding on her tears.
According to the Guardian, the hospital’s head of ophthalmology Dr Hung Chi-ting spoke out in a press conference saying the case is “the first in the world.”
“I saw something that appeared to be insect legs, so I pulled them out under a microscope one at a time without damaging their bodies,” he said while describing the moment he saw the bees. “They were four sweat bees… They nest near graves and in fallen trees, so it’s easy to come across them while hiking in mountains.”
The patient, identified by her last name, He is in her 20s is from the south-western port city of Kaohsiung, recalled: “We were visiting and tidying a relative’s grave, and I was squatted down pulling out weeds…I felt wind blowing into my face, then I felt something in my eye which I thought was sand or dirt.”
“I cleaned my eye using water but it started hurting a lot at night, a sharp pain, and I was tearing up,” added the woman. She immediately sought medical help follwing her heavily swollen eye.
The pictures of the 3-millimeter-long bees inside the woman’s eye have now gone viral on social media.
Her eyesight was saved but she suffered cellulitis (a bacterial skin infection) and keratitis (inflammation of the cornea). After being hospitalised for five days, she was discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.
She recovered 80% of her vision because she had refrained from rubbing her eyes throughout the ordeal.
The tiny pollinator known as Halictidae or “sweat bees” usually found in gardens and grassy areas but are attracted to human perspiration.