New Zealand man’s horror after he discovers cockroach in his ear

A New Zealand man who went to the doctor thinking he had a blocked ear from swimming, was horrified to discover what was really the problem.

After a day of swimming, Zane Wedding thought the blocked ear he had woken up with the next morning was simply water.

But when the supposed water started moving around – even as he sat still – the Aucklander knew he had to see a doctor.

The first visit to the doctor, on Saturday morning, resulted in antibiotics being prescribed and the instruction to blow a hair dryer into his ear to help dry it out.

He was also told to return if the feeling remained.

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After two sleepless nights, however, he booked himself in at an ear clinic to see a specialist.

“It was the ‘Oh my God’ from the doctor that made him jump – as well as her next few words.

“She said: ‘I think you have an insect in your ear,’” Mr Wedding told the New Zealand Herald.

The doctor worked for a few minutes to extract the bug – all the while in disbelief herself, she told him – before pulling out the first half of a cockroach.

“It made me physically ill,” Mr Wedding said.

The rest of the insect then had to be removed using a suction device.

Zane Wedding got a shock after seeing what the doctor extracted from his ear. Picture: Michael Craig/NZ Herald

“I felt [my eardrum] pop as it came away. The lady who extracted it said: ‘I’ve never seen this before. I’ve read it about, but never seen it.’

“She kept saying, ‘Oh my God.’ When she first said it, I thought I had a tumour.”

He had spent Friday swimming and when he arrived home, dozed off on the couch that night.

At around midnight, he woke up to feel that his left ear was blocked.

“I’d be sitting still and feel something moving around,” he said.

After the initial visit to a doctor on Saturday morning, he did as he was told and used a hair dryer in a bid to dry his ear out, but it did not feel any better.

“I was basically doing a boil-up of that cockroach.

“On Sunday, I’d be sitting still and feel something moving around. I was deaf in that ear for that three days.”

The culprit. Picture: Zane Wedding/Supplied/NZ Herald

Mr Wedding works as an arborist and has protested against the removal of native trees in the region – one of the most recent events being a protest in Avondale in 2020.

“I slept in a tree and nothing happened.

“I fall asleep on the coach on a Friday night and end up with a cockroach in my ear for three days.”

He said one positive to come out of the experience was the message to always seek a second opinion if you feel something is not right with your body.

Mr Wedding, who is Māori, said that was a particularly important message he wanted to send to people of Māori and Pacific descent who he acknowledged were sometimes afraid to see a doctor or seek specialist advice.

Thinking about the ordeal now, he is still in disbelief.

“It still gives me the creeps. We’ve got the fumigator coming in on Friday.”

This article originally appeared on New Zealand Herald and was reproduced with permission