Snake Bites Man's Penis

Mr. Lin, 50, of Nantou County, Taiwan was bitten by a snake - on the penis - while using the toilet at home.

“I felt an excruciating pain in my lower body, like someone had stabbed me with a knife, shortly after sitting on the toilet bowl … I stood up immediately and saw blood oozing from my crotch,” the 50-year-old man, surnamed Lin (林), told reporters.

When he looked down into the toilet he found a large snake staring back at him from inside the toilet bowl. Apparently, the snake thought it had found a tasty morsel dangling, when Mr. Lin sat on the toilet seat, and decided to take a bite.

“I thought it might have been a poisonous snake. To prevent it from hurting anyone else I tried to flush the toilet several times but the snake would not go down the drain,” Lin said.

Failing to flush the snake down the toilet, Mr Lin shut the lid and went to the Puli Christian Hospital for treatment. When he arrived at the hospital, the doctors tried to determine what kind of snake had taken a bite of the man's penis, so that the correct antivenin could be administered. Mr. Lin was unable to identify the type of snake.

The hospital then asked Mr. Lin's neighbors to catch the snake. It turns out that the snake was a black and yellow, 170 cm (67 inches) long, Taiwan Beauty Rat Snake [Orthriophis taeniura friesi]. Fortunately, it was not poisonous or Mr. Lin would have been very lucky to be alive according to the doctors.

"As soon as he has passed the risk of infection, he can go," the doctor, who declined to be named, said. "A snake's mouth isn't always clean."

After being identified, the snake was released back into the wild.

Taiwan beauties are large non-venomous snakes that can reach up to 2m (6.5 ft) in length. The snake is a protected species, and are sometimes kept as pets by people.

Mr. Lin now has a phobia of toilets and will only use a newly purchased plastic toilet bowl.

No one is sure exactly how the snake found its way into the toilet, but the neighbors speculate that it might have entered the plumbing system through the septic tank, which has a cracked lid, and then swum up the toilet for air.

Mr. Lin seemed quite philosophical about the entire episode and offered this incite:

“It was the snake’s signal for help when it bit me. If it hadn’t, maybe it would have been stuck in the septic tank and either suffocated or starved to death. It looked like an accident but it was actually fate,” Lin said.

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