Sea Snail Hatches Inside Little Boy’s Knee

Most 4-year-olds aren’t afraid of icky little critters. But for one California boy, nature got just a little too close for comfort. Paul Franklin of Aliso Viejo, Calif., had a pretty interesting surprise waiting for him a few weeks after he cut his knee on a rock during a family trip to the beach, the Orange County Register reported.

Paul’s mother, Rachael Franklin, became concerned when the cut began to swell, taking him to an urgent-care center to have the wound checked out. There it was diagnosed as a staph infection that needed to be treated with antibiotics.

But after the wound didn’t heal following the course of antibiotics, Paul’s mother saw that her son’s knee was starting to turn black, Los Angeles-based KCAL-TV reported. Although doctors had instructed her not to do it, she decided to squeeze the wound to drain it. That decision led to a pretty dramatic result -- a black snail shooting out of Paul’s knee.

“He moved!” Rachael Franklin screamed at the time, she later told the O.C. Register. “There’s a freakin’ little guy in there! Bubbles were coming up.”

Paul’s father, Ken Franklin, believes his son fell on a snail’s nest at the beach, allowing an egg to be lodged in his open cut -- which has now almost fully healed.

And what about the snail? Well, Paul took a liking to his new friend that he keeps in a fish tank, where the little fella goes by the name Turbo.