This is the moment a leech was removed from a boy's nose where it had been sucking his blood all night.<br /><br />The seven-year-old lad had been swimming with his friends in a canal in Xaignabouli, northwestern Laos, when he felt something stuck inside his nostril.<br /><br />He went home and complained about the pain to his mother, who has not been named, but then went to bed to see if it would be better the next day. <br /><br />With the boy still in pain, his mother took him to the local hospital on February 27 where she told medics her son had breathing difficulties throughout the night.<br /><br />The doctor looked inside his nose during an examination and found the mysterious wormlike creature hiding in his left nostril. <br /><br />The young patient sat calmly while the nurse used long metal tweezers to pull the creature from his nose.<br /><br />The leech, which measured four centimetres long, was believed to be smaller when it entered his nostril while he was playing in the dirty water - but swelled after sucking his blood.<br /><br />The mother said: ''I remembered that the canal was brownish because of the mud. From now on, I will tell my boy and every kid around there not to play in the water.''<br /><br />Nurse Laya Keomany said: ''When we shone a torch in the nostril it was clear something was blocking the airway. It was easy to remove and the boy had not suffered a serious injury.''
