Man Eats Crab Whole to Get ‘Revenge’ for Pinching His Daughter, But Gets Parasitic Infection Instead
Cardisoma guanhumi
A Chinese man recently found himself hospitalized after eating a live crab. While not unusual in itself, the story of why he ate it is remarkable.A 39-year-old man named Lu who checked himself into a Hangzhou hospital recently had an amusing tale about what brought him there, according to Zhejiang Television.The episode was set in motion some two months earlier, when Lu and his family were by a stream and a small crab pinched his daughter, cutting her skin. In retaliation, the man said he picked up the crab and ate it right there, raw.“I wanted to take revenge for my daughter,” Lu reportedly told the Hangzhou doctor attending to him.Health authorities advise against eating crabs or other shellfish raw, as the creatures can be infected with bacteria, parasites, or other pathogens. They can range from parasites like worms and flukes to bacteria like cholera, which might be present in the water where the crabs are found, according to a Hong Kong health alert.That’s exactly what happened to Lu: a blood test showed he was infected by three different parasites, although the report did not name which ones.However, perhaps Lu didn’t see anything wrong with eating a crab raw. After all, it’s common in his home province of Zhejiang to eat raw crabs soaked in liquor, a dish called “drunken crab.”
It’s Alive! Cooked Crab Awakens, Attacks Woman Trying to Eat It7 July 2018, 11:00 GMT“Live crab is directly submerged in a container filled with a spirit with high alcohol content, typically gaoliang, a kind of distilled liquor made from sorghum, and various seasonings including sugar, star anise, cinnamon, Chinese pepper and orange peel,” Shanghai Daily said about the dish. “After being marinated for several days, it can be served. Alcohol here plays the role of adding aroma and disinfection. Crab is served live hence it should be fresh enough and grown in a clean water area.”However, the paper also cautions that “it’s impossible for alcohol to kill all the bacteria inside the crab, which may lead to intestinal disease.”
