Ever heard of Flesh Eating Maggots in the Ear?

Maggots

A British woman said she "burst into tears" when doctors told her she had flesh-eating maggots living in her ear after a trip to Peru. Rochelle Harris, 27, had started having severe headaches as she returned to UK following her visit to the South American country with her boyfriend. She developed sharp shooting pains down one side of her face and also began to hear strange scratching sounds in her head. She woke up the next morning to find her pillow soaked in fluid.

Ms Harris went to A&E in Derby and doctors thought it could be a minor ear infection but she was referred to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) team. The ENT specialist found a small hole in the ear canal and then discovered the maggots.

She explained: "Mum asked her 'Can you see what it is?' and the doctor said 'If you don't mind I'd prefer to speak to the registrar before I tell you anything"'.
"My mum said 'Please tell us' and that's when the doctor said 'You've got maggots in your ear'. I burst into tears instantly." Ms Harris added: "I was very scared - I wondered if they were in my brain. I thought to myself 'This could be very, very serious.'"

An emergency brain scan showed no damage had been done to her ear drum, blood vessels or facial nerve.

But the medics did find that the maggots had chewed a 12mm hole in her ear canal.
They tried to drown them by flooding the canal with olive oil but they survived and experts managed to remove two. However, a further examination discovered eight maggots. They were sent to a laboratory for analysis and it was discovered that a New World screwworm fly had laid eggs inside her ear.

Ms Harris said she remembered walking through a swarm of flies when in Peru and a fly had got inside her ear. But once she had shooed it away she thought nothing more of it.
The Briton, who is not expected to suffer any long-term problems, said: "I just wanted them out of me and now I knew what was causing the sensations and sounds it made it all the worse.

"I'm no longer as squeamish as I was about bugs - how can you be when they've been inside your head?" Her story features on a new Discovery Channel documentary called Bugs, Bites And Parasites.

Culled from:Yahoo!