Once widespread in the UK, the medicinal leech is now rare due mainly to habitat loss and historic collecting for medical use. In Ireland, the leech was driven to extinction in the 19th century.

In this short film Dr Michael Mosley interviews a surgeon who is pioneering the use of leeches in medical research. He allows a leech to attach to his arm and suck his blood, the mouth of the ...

Surgeons managed to reattach the ear but had to use leeches to drain blood from it while it recovered. The woman went to Rhode Island Hospital after the attack and Dr Stephen Sullivan reattached ...