A venomous toilet seat snake bite left a man on safari needing his penis reconstructed in hospital.
As the 47-year-old victim desperately waited for an air ambulance in South Africa, his genitals showed signs of a hideous 'flesh eating disease' which turned them purple.
With the nearest hospital 220 miles from the safari reserve, the unnamed Dutch man was helpless but to watch his penis rot following his hellish encounter with a highly venomous snouted cobra.
The reptile was already hidden inside the toilet bowl when the man sat down and became the first medical case of snouted cobra envenomation of the genitals, according to Urology Case Reports.
The case read: "During this time, he felt a burning sensation in his genitals and a pain that ascended through his groin to his flank, upper chest, and abdomen. He also reported vomiting but no neurological symptoms."
Emergency treatment was not enough to save a serious amount of damaged tissue in his penis which doctors cut away.
Surgery in South Africa was just the start for the Dutch national who nine days later lost even more of penis tissue on his return to the Netherlands.
Doctors got to work rebuilding what had been surgically removed by using a graft of tissue from elsewhere on his groin, MailOnline reports.
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They have since issued a cheeky warning to anyone else heading overseas so they can hopefully avoid losing their own penis in such a way.
The medics wrote: "Our take home message? Always flush the toilet before sitting down in countries notorious for their snake population!"
The cobra's venom infected the 47-year-old with necrosis which can prove deadly as bacteria releases devastating toxins into tissue beneath the skin.
At the patient's one year check up, doctors found the "wounds had healed well and penile function and sensation had fully recovered".
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Penis scarring from the skin graft is not the only evidence of the bite that still lingers for the man, whose kidney contains the type of toxins found in the snouted cobra's venom.
In their report the medics say the man's kidney injury makes the case different to most cobra bites.
Despite snake bites causing between 81,000 and 138,000 deaths and a further 400,000 disabilities worldwide each year, bitten genitals such as this case remain very rare, the report said.
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