From the left eye of his patient, a doctor would eventually remove four tiny bees.

从病人的左眼里，一名医生最终取出了四只小蜜蜂。

“Under the microscope, I slowly pulled them out, one after another,” Dr. Hung Chi-ting, an ophthalmologist at Fooyin University Hospital in Taiwan, said at a news conference broadcast by local media last week.

“在显微镜下，我慢慢一个个把它们抽出来。”台湾辅英科技大学附设医院(Fooyin University Hospital)眼科医生洪启庭博士上周在当地媒体播出的一场新闻发布会上说。

The patient, identified by her last name, He, said that her ordeal began when she felt a sharp pain in her left eye while taking part in an annual tradition of tomb-sweeping. Plucking weeds from a gravestone, she rinsed what she thought was sand from her eyes with some clean water. By the time she returned home hours later, her eye was heavily swollen. Tears and other secretions streamed out.

这位何姓病人说，她在参加一年一度的扫墓活动时，左眼感到剧烈疼痛，折磨由此开始。当时她正在拔墓碑上的杂草，于是用一些清水冲洗眼睛，她原本以为是沙子进去了。当几个小时后回到家时，她的眼睛已经肿得很厉害了，一直流眼泪和分泌物。

She sought medical help. And under her left eyelid, Dr. Hung found what are colloquially known as sweat bees.

她于是去看医生。在她的左眼皮下，洪启庭博士找到了俗称“汗蜂”的东西。

The bees, from the halictid family, subsist primarily on pollen and nectar but also need salt produced by human and animal glands, so they feed on sweat and tears. They rarely sting, doing so only when attacked.

这种来自集蜂科的蜜蜂主要依靠花粉和花蜜生存，但也需要人类和动物腺体产生的盐，所以它们会以汗水和眼泪为食。除非受到攻击，这种蜜蜂很少蜇人。

Many sweat bees are about a quarter of an inch in length, about half the size of a yellowjacket.

汗蜂的长度通常约为四分之一英寸，约为小黄蜂的一半大。

The tiny pollinator can be found in gardens and grassy areas around the world, but it is very rare for them to fly into eyes. Fooyin University Hospital called the operation to remove the bees from Ms. He’s eye “the first in the world.”

这种小小的传粉昆虫可以在世界各地的花园和草地上找到，但它们很少飞入眼睛。辅英科技大学附设医院把从何女士眼中移除蜜蜂的手术称作“世界首例”。

When Dr. Hung extracted the bees, they were still alive. Had they ruptured inside Ms. He’s eye, she could have faced serious infection, even losing her vision, he said. The bees had remained intact partly because she had refrained from rubbing her eyes throughout the ordeal.

洪博士取出蜜蜂时，它们还是活的。他说，如果它们在何女士眼中破裂，她可能会面临严重的感染，甚至失明。蜜蜂完好无损，部分原因是因为她在整个过程中都没有揉眼睛。