Chinese Doctors Remove Volleyball from Dolphin’s Stomach

(NewsCore) - NANJING, China -- Doctors came to the rescue of a captive dolphin who swallowed a volleyball at a Chinese aquarium, removing the ball from his stomach after a long-armed volunteer had failed to reach it.

Jiang Bo, a dolphin from Japan now at Nanjing's Underwater World park in eastern China, apparently ingested the object while playing with it in his pool Wednesday, the Shanghai Daily reported.

Initially afraid to resort to surgery, doctors appealed to local long-armed men to reach down into Jiang Bo's stomach to recover the ball.

Six-foot-four (1.95m) Meng Da, a professional basketball player with Jiangsu Province club, rushed to the aquarium to help, but even he was unable to reach it.

At the end of last week, the five-year-old dolphin was airlifted to Nanjing Medical University, where doctors attached a medical steel wire to the ball and finally yanked it out after a three-hour procedure.

"We can say that Jiang Bo's life is no longer at risk," an official with the aquarium told the paper.

"But of course he will require long-term recovery treatment. We'll give him post-operation care and adjust his diet."