Man has a cockroach pulled out of his ear after he felt wriggling for three days
- Zane Wedding thought he had water in his ear but it turned out to be a cockroach
- Realised something was wrong after feeling wriggling sensation in his ear canal
- Doctors initially syringed his ear and gave him antibiotics but the feeling went on
- New Zealander visited a specialist who saw and extracted the now-dead insect
A New Zealand man has had a cockroach pulled out of his ear after he felt it wriggling for three days.
Zane Wedding, from Auckland, went to the doctor on Saturday with what he thought was water stuck in his ear canal after a day of swimming.
He had his ear syringed, was given antibiotics and then sent home but decided to go to an ear specialist on Monday because he could still feel a squirming sensation.
New Zealand man Zane Wedding has had a cockroach pulled out of his ear after he felt it wriggling for three days. Pictured: A doctor holds out the cockroach pulled from his ear
The specialist realised Wedding had a now-dead cockroach in his ear and managed to extract the insect – and was gifted it as a memento from the patient.
‘It made me physically ill,’ Wedding told the NZ Herald, describing the ordeal.
The doctor was just as shocked as he was, Mr Wedding said, proclaiming ‘Oh my god’ when she realised what he had stuck in his ear canal.
‘She said: “I think you have an insect in your ear”, he told the newspaper.
The doctor was able to extract half of the cockroach from his ear after working for a few minutes, but the rest had to be pulled out by a suction device.
‘I felt [my eardrum] pop as it came away. The lady who extracted it said: “I’ve never seen this before. I’ve read about it, but never seen it”.
‘She kept saying: “Oh my God”. When she first said it I thought I had a tumour.’
Zane Wedding (pictured), from Auckland, went to the doctor on Saturday with what he thought was water stuck in his ear canal after a day of swimming, only to be told it was an insect
Mr Wedding said he had spent Friday swimming, and when he arrived back to his home he fell asleep on the sofa.
But around midnight, he awoke to feel that his left ear was blocked.
On his first visit to the doctor on Saturday, he was told to use a hairdryer in a bid to dry his ear out. This did not help.
Instead, he said, he was likely just boiling the cockroach inside his ear.
‘On Sunday, I’d be sitting still and feel something moving around. I was deaf in that ear for that three days,’ he said.
Mr Wedding (pictured) works as an arborist, and protests against the removal of native trees. One of his most recent protests was in 2020, where he slept in a tree
Mr Wedding works as an arborist, and protests against the removal of native trees. One of his most recent protests was in 2020, where he slept in a tree to stop it from being cut down.
During the event, he said, he had no problems, but bemoaned the fact that when he fell asleep on his own sofa, a cockroach crawled into his ear.
Mr Wedding, who is Māori, said he was now using his story as a way to persuade people to always seek a second opinion when you feel there is something wrong with your body.
The message is particularly important for people that are Māoris or of Pacific descent, he said, as they are sometimes reluctant to seek a doctor.