Sometimes we don't pay attention to stories related to the eyes, but this one left us speechless!:
According to the Washington Post, a 29-year-old Taiwanese woman made an emergency visit to Fooyin University Hospital for an eye exam because she had severe pain and swelling in her eye. The woman attributed the pain she felt to an infection, but it turned out to be much more than that
Hung Chi-ting, director of the hospital's ophthalmology clinic, examined her eye in the slit lamp. The examination showed that her discomfort was not due to an infection, but rather... bee secretions! Specifically, secretions from four bees of the species Halictidae (also known as sweat bees), which had settled inside her eye socket!
And just like that, this incredible story gets worse and worse!
Chi-ting removed all four bees alive and found that they survived by consuming the salt from the woman's tears!
But how did four live bees end up in the eyes of the 29-year-old woman?!
The mystery was not difficult to solve: According to the "unfortunate" woman in an interview with Singapore's Business Insider, the day before she had been attending the Qingming festival (known as Tomb Sweeping Day), during which Chinese families visit the graves of their ancestors to clean them, pray for them and make offerings in their memory. As she was inside a grave, she felt something come into contact with her eye, but she assumed it was dust and didn't pay much attention. Later, however, when her symptoms worsened, she suspected something was wrong.
It is worth noting that, according to the woman, this particular species of bee lives in mountainous areas or in graves, so this is not surprising.
In an article in the Washington Post, Matan Shelomi, an associate professor of entomology at the National Taiwan University, wrote that these bees "don't seem to be bothered by humans, so they go to any source of salt.".
As he also adds, "I think they are silly if they come to the man for salt. They can't seem to distinguish what we are.".
Fortunately, the woman made a full recovery and her vision was not damaged. Doctors highlighted the fact that she avoided rubbing her eye during her "nightmare".
As Chi-ting finally pointed out, "Surprisingly, even the bees had a happy ending: they emerged unharmed from the process of being removed from the woman's eye socket and will be taken to a special laboratory for further study and research.".
