E.R. removes 'asparagus-sized' eel lodged inside man's bottom

Auckland - You'll never look at asparagus the same way again. A New Zealand man showed up at the emergency room last week to have an 'asparagus-sized' eel removed from his bottom.

"The eel was about the size of a decent sprig of asparagus and the incident is the talk of the place," an Auckland City Hospital source said, according to the New Zealand Herald. "Doctors and nurses have come across people with strange objects that have got stuck where they shouldn't be before, but an eel has to be a first." It all started when a man showed up at the Auckland City Hospital emergency room last week for treatment. After hospital staff sent the patient for X-rays and a scan, it revealed the foreign body was lodged inside of him, the New Zealand Herald reported. An Auckland City Hospital (ACH) spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post. But Matt Rogers, spokesman for Auckland District Health Board, confirmed that a man was treated for the condition at ACH, the New Zealand Herald said. "In response to a direct query from the Herald on Sunday, we can confirm that an adult male presented at Auckland City Hospital this week with an eel inside him," Rogers said. "No further comment will be made out of respect for the patient's right to privacy." This is not the first time an unusual object has been removed from a person's rectum. In 2008 a clergyman, in his 50s, claimed a potato got stuck up his bottom after he fell backwards on to a table while hanging curtains naked in the kitchen, the UK's Metro reported. Unlike the clergyman––who told the medical staff at Sheffield's Northern General Hospital that the accident was "definitely not due to a sex game"–– it's unclear how the eel got lodged inside the Auckland man. Nevertheless, the New Zealand man, who has not been named, was treated successfully and released, the Herald reported.