Story By: John Feng, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

Video Credit: AsiaWire

This is the moment a doctor pulls a big fat tick from a woman’s forehead after she let it grow for five days thinking it was a mole.

According to Wang Xinggang, head dermatologist at Zibo Sixth People’s Hospital, the elderly patient mentioned the ‘growth’ in passing while undergoing surgery.

The medic from Zibo, a city East China’s Shandong Province, recalled: “She said: ‘By the way, there’s something growing on my head. Can you take a look and see whether you can laser it off?’

“I pulled her hair aside to look – and found a tick.”

The fat tick had been feeding on the woman for days and had already buried its head deep under her skin.

Doctor Wang said: “Her family saw it too, but that was five days ago.”

He explained: “Ticks usually start really small, and their bites are usually undetectable because of its neurotoxins.

“You can’t just yank it out. You might break it in half and leave its hooked pincers underneath the skin, which can lead to an infection.”

Doctor Wang pulled the fat tick – full of the patient’s blood – from her forehead after successfully paralysing it using ether, which is an agent commonly used by entomologists to kill captured insects in ‘killing jars’.

He said: “Ether dazes the tick, and once its paralysed it’ll let go by itself. If not, pull it out yourself.”

The patient is believed to have been bitten by the tick while walking through woods or bushes.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.