A US woman allegedly bit off the right side of her boyfriend's tongue when he tried to kiss her after an argument on Valentine's Day.
Elaine Cook, 51, and her boyfriend started fighting after returning to her apartment from a date on Valentine's Day, prosecutors and court records said.
She reportedly asked her 47-year-old boyfriend to leave, but he tried to make amends on his way out the door.
"He told her they should stop fighting and went to kiss her and she bit off a large portion of his tongue," Assistant State's Attorney Eve Reilly said.
The man, who had reportedly been dating Cook for 10 months and asked to remain anonymous, ran to the kitchen sink.
Cook allegedly followed him, put the piece of his tongue she had bitten off in her hand and threw it on the counter.
Her boyfriend put the tongue in a bag of ice and called emergency services, who took him to hospital.
Doctors were unable to reattach the tongue because of an inadequate blood supply.
The victim said he had been going to the doctor every day, had sutures in his mouth and was missing most of the right side of his tongue.
"It makes me sick to my stomach that she's sitting in jail right now, but it's just out of my hands," he told the Chicago Tribune.
"I have to focus on getting better now."
Cook was charged with aggravated domestic battery.
She was arrested on Friday and a judge ordered her held in lieu of $100,000 in bond court.
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