In 2013, the story of 4-year-old Paul Franklin went viral! He and his mother spent a sunny day on a Californian beach. Suddenly, the little boy fell while fooling around and hit his knee and at the time, that seemed to be all it was.
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But as the bumped knee turned to an orange-sized goose egg over the following days, Paul's mother became nervous. She consulted doctors about what might be the cause.
The boy's knee turned black
The doctors explained that under no circumstances should she open the thick swelling on her son's knee. They gave her antibiotics thinking it was a staph infection, which helped but didn't stop the bump from growing. Paul's knee was not only very swollen, but it also turned pitch black.
Then his mother made a decision: against the advice of the doctors, she opened the wound! The reason: it was getting worse and worse and she simply couldn't watch her son suffer any more.
But what the mother then pulled out of the wound took their breath away. A small round object was brought to light, which the two initially thought was just a small stone. She said, as quoted by CNN:
It looked like a rock. It was a black thing,
But on closer inspection, they recognised it was actually small animal.
Read more: McDonald's customer was 'mortified' when they served this in her burger
Sea snail in the wound
It was not a stone that she took out of her son's knee, but a living sea snail! These animals are known to be particularly resistant and adapt quickly to changing external conditions. Apparently this also applies to the inside of a human body. Creepy! She added:
I put it on a paper towel and I’m like, ‘That is a weird looking rock. It has swirls on it,’ and I turn it over and it is a sea snail.
Paul on the other hand took the whole action very calmly. Fortunately, there was no necrosis. His mother reported that the son even found it cool that the sea snail had made its home inside him.
In any case, the pair are relieved the experience is over and it wasn't anything more serious.
Read more:
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Sources used:
CNN: 'Sea snail hatches, grows inside California boy’s knee after scrape at the beach'
