Block and suck

Bad eating habits are dangerous to one's well-being.

A baggage screener at the Office for Transportation Security assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport's Terminal 1 was caught on CCTV camera swallowing what looked like pieces of paper last 8 September.

The footage showed the woman stuffing the paper into her mouth and then taking a sip from a bottle of water.

The OTS is investigating the employee after a traveler complained to airport authorities that she lost $300 at Terminal 1 after the employee had inspected her bag and just before she was videotaped stuffing something into her mouth and drinking water. Her colleagues frisked the OTS employee but found no money on her. She also denied "eating" the $300 in bills.

Nevertheless, the OTS suspended the screener, her supervisor, and another staffer on duty when the $300 went missing. The OTS is also preparing to file charges against other OTS personnel who may have been involved in the theft.

If swallowing money can get people in hot water, a Chinese woman who drank from a mountain spring suffered throat pain and coughed up blood.

The woman consulted a doctor, and a CT scan was done on her. An obstruction in her trachea was seen in the scan results.

To determine the obstruction, she underwent a bronchoscopy, where a very thin tube with a microcamera on its tip was inserted down her throat.

Doctors were shocked by what they found. They used the tube to remove the blockage in the trachea — a live leech that had been sucking blood from the woman's throat for the past two weeks.

Dr. Zhao Xiao, the surgical team leader, said the woman did not notice she had swallowed a leech when she drank the spring water.

After removing the leech, the woman felt better and was discharged from the hospital.