https://mothership.sg/2025/10/china-woman-swallows-frogs-pain
An 82-year-old woman in Hangzhou, China, was hospitalised after swallowing eight live frogs in a misguided attempt to cure her lower back pain. The woman, identified only by her surname Zhang, believed that consuming live frogs would relieve her herniated disc, a claim she had heard from unverified traditional sources.
According to reports by the South China Morning Post, Zhang had asked her family to catch the frogs—each about the size of an adult’s palm—without revealing her intention to eat them. She swallowed all eight frogs over two days without cooking them. Soon after, she began experiencing stomach discomfort, which worsened into severe abdominal pain and immobility within days.
Doctors at Zhejiang University Hospital found that Zhang was suffering from parasitic infections caused by ingesting the live animals. Medical tests showed elevated oxyphil cells, commonly linked to parasitic or blood-related illnesses. The frogs had damaged her digestive system, leading to internal infections.
Zhang was treated for two weeks and eventually discharged, but doctors warned of the serious health risks of consuming live or raw animals. A senior physician at the hospital said similar cases have been reported in recent years, with some patients consuming raw frog or snake gall or even applying frog skin to the body in hopes of healing ailments.
He added that such incidents often involve elderly patients who are reluctant to discuss their health problems and resort to unsafe traditional remedies only when their conditions worsen. The hospital reiterated that folk practices lacking medical evidence can lead to dangerous, sometimes life-threatening complications.
