'Makes my skin crawl': Doctor horrified as patient gets cockroach stuck inside his ear

WARNING: This video and article contains graphic content.

When a man named Badruddin felt a tickle in his ear he didn't think much of it but it soon turned into a medical emergency with potentially dire consequences.

In the truly fascinating medical series Stuck – which you can watch for free on 9Now – medical professionals remove objects that have been lodged in their patients' bodies.

Stream episodes of Stuck for free on 9Now.

In one episode, Badruddin was taking an afternoon nap when he felt a tickling sensation in his ear.

When he went to scratch his ear he could feel a cockroach crawling around inside his ear canal.

You can see how the medical episode unfolded in the clip below.

Badruddin sought the help of Dr Daniel Carothers, an ear, nose and throat physician in Atlanta, Georgia

Despite having dealt with similar cases before, Dr Carothers still shuddered at the thought of Badruddin's problem.

"It makes my skin crawl every time I see someone with a bug in their ear," Dr Carothers said.

"Typically it's a cockroach, a cockroach has spiney legs and it will kind of get stuck in the ear canal. That's pretty terrifying."

After Badruddin realised he had something stuck in his ear, he came up with an unusual solution to his medical problem – he put onion juice inside his ear in the hopes the cockroach would slip out.

Dr Carothers was baffled: "Onion juice, I was immediately surprised and wondered if he had juiced some onions or if he already had it for cooking purposes.

"But as it turned out it was apparently an ancient Indian remedy for ear problems."

With the onion juice proving to be unsuccessful in removing the cockroach from Badruddin's ear, Dr Carothers had to pull out the big guns – a medical tool called "the alligator".

He used the alligator tool to carefully pluck and pull the cockroach out of the ear, but it was a slow and delicate process as Dr Carother had to be careful to not cause permanent damage to the eardrum.

You can watch the moment Dr. Carothers removes the cockroach in the video below:

Badruddin's granddaughter Shasleen was there for support but found herself very squirmish.

"I couldn't look at it because it was really gross," she said.

The removal process was as quick and painless as possible and Dr Carothers was pleased Badruddin sought help almost immediately.

"If he didn't come and see us that thing would still be there 10 years from now," he said.

Watch Episode 3 from Season 1 of Stuck to see what other objects patients have lodged in their bodies.

Stream episodes of Stuck for free on 9Now.