Woman 'becomes pregnant in the mouth' from calamari
A 63-year old woman from South Korea became pregnant with 12 baby squid while eating a portion of cooked squid, claims a scientific paper from the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in Maryland, USA.
She claimed to have felt a prickling sensation in her mouth while chewing on the sperm sacks of squid, which forcefully shoot sperm that try to embed themselves when they land.
The lady went to doctors complaining of what they described as 'bug-like organisms' in her mouth. In fact, doctors found baby cephalopods, which are small pods covered in adhesive to make them stick.
Doctors were only able to formally identify the pods as squid spermatophores after they removed them from the victim's gums, tongue and cheek.
The bizarre claim in the NCBI's paper says:
"She did not swallow the portion, but spat it out immediately. She complained of a pricking and foreign-body sensation in the oral cavity.
"Twelve small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms stuck in the mucous membrane of the tongue, cheek, and gingiva [gums] were completely removed, along with the affected mucosa.
"On the basis of their morphology and the presence of the sperm bag, the foreign bodies were identified as squid spermatophores."
In western countries, the organs of squids are generally removed before being served to eat. Incidents involving the 'impregnation' of human mouths are more or less confined to areas where raw fish is eaten.
