Father falls seriously ill after eating a live crab in REVENGE after it pinched his daughter
- The father, identified as Lu, became angry after daughter was pinched by crab
- Lu decided to get his own back and swallowed the crab whole while it was alive
- But two months later, Lu sent to hospital after becoming infected with parasites
A father in China became seriously ill after he ate a live crab in an act of revenge after the creature pinched his daughter.
The father, identified only as Lu, 39, became angry after his daughter was pinched by a small crab while they were by a stream.
Lu, from the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang in China, decided to get his own back and picked up the offending crab before swallowing it whole while it was still alive, local media reported.
But two months later, Lu was admitted to hospital with serious abdominal and back pain and he was diagnosed with the rare digestive disease eosinophilic gastroenteritis.
Medics at the hospital ran further tests and found Lu had pathological changes in his chest, abdomen, liver and digestive system. But doctors were left baffled as to what has caused the illness.
‘We repeatedly asked him if he had ever eaten game, or anything unusual, anything that could cause allergies. He said no not at all,’ doctor Cao Qian, the director of the digestive system department at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in Hangzhou told Zhejiang Television.
Dr Cao Qian (pictured) said Lu was admitted to hospital with severe back pain after he decided to eat a raw crab as revenge for the creature pinching his daughter while they were next to a stream
It was only when Lu’s wife remembered how Lu had eaten a live crab two months earlier that doctors discovered the cause of the illness.
Lu admitted to doctors that he had eaten ‘something special’.
‘I asked him, “Why did you eat a live crab?”,’ Dr Cao Quin said.
‘He said, “I wanted to take revenge for my daughter. When we were by a stream my daughter was pinched by a small crab, so I got angry and put it in my mouth for revenge”,’ Dr Cao Quin added.
A subsequent blood test showed that Lu had been infected by at least three parasites after he ate the live crab. He has since recovered but still needs follow-up check-ups.
Lu became seriously ill after he ate a live crab in an act of revenge after the creature pinched his daughter (file image of a crab)
Crabs are usually eaten after being cooked in China, but in some areas in eastern China some people do eat raw crabs.
The traditional ‘drunken crabs’ dish from the eastern provinces of China usually involves marinating the raw crab meat with alcohol and seasoning it for hours so that it becomes ‘drunk’ before being served.
‘Theoretically it’s better to eat something marinated than completely raw because it has been treated with alcohol which can help kill parasites and bacteria,’ Dr Cao Quin said.
‘But it can’t kill all parasites, so it’s not 100 per cent safe either.’
In 2020, a woman in Hangzhou was infected with at least six parasites and suffered from fluid on her lungs and respiratory arrest for six months after she ate 30 raw crabs.