[caption id="attachment_77524" align="aligncenter" width="403"] Darwin man Hendrik Helmer was left in excruciating pain after a cockroach got stuck in his ear. (Supplied)
[/caption]Aussie Doctors Retrieve Large Cockroach Buried in Man's Ear

An Australian was man rushed to a local hospital emergency room recently in the middle of the night when he awoke with a sharp pain in his ear and discovered that a large cockroach had burrowed itself into his ear canal.

The Darwin resident first tried to use a vacuum cleaner hose to extract the insect, but when that failed, he hurried to find professional medical assistance.

Hendrik Helmer said he was frightened at first, thinking that a poisonous spider may have entered his ear, but was just as disturbed to discover that the invading insect was a gigantic cockroach.

"I was hoping it was not a poisonous spider ... I was hoping it didn't bite me," he said.

"Whatever was in my ear didn't like it at all," he told the broadcaster Friday.

"After an hour of enduring wave after wave of what felt like something eating through my ear drum to nest and lay eggs, my brain decided hospital was the place to be," he later wrote on Facebook.

The doctor poured oil into the man's ear and then waited for a few minutes while the gigantic cockroach began to die.

Using a pair of forceps, the doctor was able to slide the insect out of the man's ear canal, reporting that the 1 inch-long cockroach was one of the largest insects she had ever had to extract from a patient.

"She [the doctor] said, 'You know how I said a little cockroach, that may have been an underestimate'," he said, adding that staff at the hospital had awarded him the unofficial title of having the largest cockroach removed from an ear.
"They said they had never pulled an insect this large out of someone's ear."

Helmer said he didn't think he would be taking any special precautions in the future to prevent a similar occurrence. But when he shared his horrifying story with friends, many of his mates said they planned on wearing earphones while asleep.

[caption id="attachment_77675" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Hendrik Helmer endured a painful hospital visit after a large cockroach burrowed into his ear and his efforts to suck it out with a vacuum cleaner failed.on.aol.com[/caption]

On The Web:

Hendrik Helmer: man cockroach ear
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10562727/Australian-doctors-pull-inch-long-cockroach-from-mans-ear.html

Hendrik Helmer cockroach ear: Man has 2cm cockroach removed from ear
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/01/10/17/08/man-has-2cm-cockroach-removed-from-ear