Surgeons in Beijing removed a blossoming dandelion from a one year old girl's left ear canal after a seed somehow found its way into the space around four months ago.
"The dandelion had totally grown into Ranran's ear and filled her ear canal wall," Gu Qinglong, chief physician of otolaryngology at Capital Institute of Pediatrics, told the Beijing Times. "Even the slightest bit of pressure put her at risk for internal bleeding so it had to come out."
The girl's mother told doctors that her daughter had been crying and complaining about an itchy ear for months. She said that a seed had accidentally gone down Ranran's left ear in the summer.
"When she started scratching her ear, I checked and found something inside, but couldn't get it out," Wang told People's Daily, apparently then deciding to just leave the foreign object inside her baby's skull because hey, what's the worst that could happen? Oh, right:
Gu said that since the ear canal wall is warm and humid with secretions, it can provide a seed with the environment and nutrition it needs to grow.
[Image: X-ray of the dandelion (inset), normal dandelion (main). Via Flickr]
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