Horror as fly found inside Missouri man’s intestines

An unlikely visitor was found inside the man’s intestines (American Journal of Gastroenterology)

In some situations, people wish they could be a fly on the wall – but maybe not an intestinal wall inside a man’s digestive system.

However, this is where one unfortunate insect found itself.

The bizarre discovery came to light when a 63-year-old patient went in for a routine colon screening in Missouri.

The colonoscopy seemed to be going to plan until the doctors reached the transverse colon in the large intestine and came across a fully intact fly.

The man was bewildered and had no idea how the insect got into his body.

He told the doctors he had only consumed clear liquids before his procedure and, two days before, he had eaten pizza and lettuce – but could not recall a fly being on any of the food he ate. He had no symptoms to suggest he had ingested it.

The fly was prodded but did not move

(American Journal of Gastroenterology)

The fly was not moving when it was prodded by the doctors, who were equally surprised to find it fully intact inside the colon.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, represented a “very rare colonoscopy finding and mystery on how the intact fly found its way into the transverse colon”.

There have been other rare cases in the past where insects have remained intact throughout their journey into the digestive system, the journal revealed. In some incidents, flies and larvae have made their way inside a human and infested the intestines, known as intestinal myiasis.

Insects can deposit eggs onto food, which is then consumed by a human and, in rare cases, survive stomach acid and the gastrointestinal environment, according to the National Library of Medicine.

In some cases where larvae have been found in the stools of some patients, they have experienced diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention does not track cases of intestinal myiasis but does make note of one particular case in 1984 when a one-year-old child was experiencing “moving worms” in her stool after being fed over-ripe bananas.

The doctors at the time did not prescribe any medicine but instead told the parents to cover up their fruit from flies. The “moving worms” then stopped appearing.