Chinese woman hospitalised after swallowing 8 live frogs to treat lower back pain

The woman said she was following a folklore she had heard, which said that eating live frogs could help relieve her lower back pain.

An 82-year-old Chinese woman was hospitalised after swallowing eight small live frogs, believing it would ease her lower back pain.

After two weeks of treatment, she was discharged from the hospital.(Unsplash/Representational image)

The woman, surnamed Zhang, said she was following a folklore she had heard, which said that eating live frogs could help relieve the pain she was experiencing from a herniated disc, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. Believing this theory, she asked her family to catch some live frogs for her, without informing them of her intentions.

After her family collected the frogs, all of which were smaller than an adult’s palm, the elderly woman swallowed them live. She consumed three of the frogs right away and the remaining five the next day.

Soon after, she began experiencing abdominal pain and was sent to the hospital, where she then discovered what she had done. "My mother ate eight live frogs. Now the sharp pain has made her unable to walk," her son told the doctor as quoted in the report.

What did the doctors say?

The elderly woman was admitted to a hospital in Hangzhou, and doctors told her that her digestive system had collapsed after swallowing the live frogs, with parasites infecting her body. She experienced intense pain, making it hard to walk.

Doctors conducted a round of tests and found heightened levels of oxyphil cells, before eventually confirming that she had a parasite infection.

“Swallowing frogs has damaged the patient’s digestive system and resulted in some parasites being present in her body, including sparganum,” said one of the doctors from the local hospital in Hangzhou in eastern China.

The doctors were able to treat Zhang, and she was discharged after two weeks.