Seven-year-old Paul Franklin scratched his knee at a beach near his home in Orange County, California. When it swelled to the size of a large orange, his mother took him to the doctor, who told her not to pop the bulging sac of pus, as it might be MRSA. But when the wound turned black, she went ahead and popped the sac anyway… and was shocked to find a strange round object embedded under the skin.
“I thought it was a rock,” his mother said on an episode of Monsters Inside Me airing tonight on Animal Planet.
Closer reflection showed it was something different.
“I realized it wasn’t a rock. It has whirls on it,” she said. “I turn it over and I think — I might have laughed out loud. I said, ‘Paul! This is a snail!'”
From HuffPo:
The official name for the snail stuck in Paul’s knee is Littorina scutulata. It’s a species of sea snail found in tidal areas on the west coast from Alaska to Baja California.
Biologist Dan Riskin, the host of “Monsters Inside Me,” said the species of sea snail can easily adapt to different types of environments — even inside humans.
“The subcutaneous tissue of the human body mirrors the harsh conditions where sea snails usually survive,” Riskin said on the episode.
Paul, of course, thinks the whole thing is totally cool – as most 7-year-old boys would.
Watch the super-disgusting video here.
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