Spanish police launched a sexual assault investigation after doctors found a dead turtle inside a woman’s vagina on Saturday.The unidentified British woman was taken to hospital in Tenerife, Spain, after experiencing severe abdominal pain. Doctors diagnosed the pain as a serious infection caused in the genitals by the Chinese three-keeled pond turtle.
According to Spanish news outlet El Pais, the doctors alerted the police fearing it was a case of sexual assault.
The woman, who was on a holiday in Spain, told the police she started feeling strange after partying with a group of friends Thursday. However, she added, she did not remember what happened that night, local daily ABC reported.
The 26-year-old decided to seek medical help Saturday but did not have any idea how the turtle ended up in her vagina. It was also unknown if the reptile died before or after entering the woman's body, officials said.
"This incident did happen and the reports are true. The woman does not know how the reptile ended up where it did and we don't either,” a police source said, adding, "The duty doctors inspected her and saw that her discomfort was due to the fact that the woman, who lives on the island, had a dead turtle inside her vagina which had caused a serious infection.”
According to local reports, the woman insisted she did not want authorities to investigate the incident further and police have halted their probe pending new information.
“We are not actively investigating this matter because the woman declined to give a statement,” a police source told the Sun.
Researchers initially believed the creature was a loggerhead sea turtle because they were indigenous to the Canary Islands archipelago; however, it was confirmed later the reptile was indeed a Chinese pond turtle, which was sold around the world in pet stores and can grow up to 12 inches in length.
In an unrelated incident last year, a woman from Essex, England, nearly died after a cyst on her groin developed into a deadly flesh-eating bug, which attacked her vagina.
Doctors discovered Tammy Peel, 39, was suffering from a bacterial infection that affected the tissue beneath the skin. Part of her thigh and the area around her belly had to be removed to stop the spread of the infection.
“I suffer from type 2 diabetes, and as a result occasionally have cysts develop. Diabetes is a debilitating illness and people can die of the ramifications just like me. I want people to know what I went through and help others who have had similar experiences,” she said, the New York Post reported.
Speaking
about the 4-hour long surgery, she said, “It was such a horrible thing to go through. I nearly died and feared that my husband and I might never be able to have sex again. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone. I wouldn’t even look at the wound myself.”
“My vagina will never be the same again but I’m learning to work with what I’ve got,” she added.
Spanish police launched a sexual assault investigation after doctors found a dead turtle inside a woman’s vagina. In this image, Professor Yakup Kaska dresses a wound on a baby sea turtle at Sea Turtle Rescue Center at Iztuzu Beach near Dalyan in Mugla province, Turkey, Aug. 25, 2018