An elderly villager from China has had some 30 live maggots removed from her ear canal after a fly laid eggs there which then hatched into worms.
A disturbing video, taken by nurses at the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, shows doctor Ma Yanhong having to remove the wriggling bugs from the 76-year-old patient one by one, using a pair of tweezers.
The ear, nose and throat specialist based in Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan Province, was given the case after the villager was transferred by local hospital doctors, reported Chinese news website Sohu.com.
Unwanted visitors: Pictured are some of the maggots that were removed from the 76-year-old Chinese villager who went to the hospital after noticing one worm falling out of her left ear
According to the patient’s granddaughter, the elderly woman started suffering chronic suppurative otitis media – an inflammatory disease of the middle ear – 60 years ago, causing a pus-like discharge to be present in her left ear.
However, because the condition did not appear to affect her daily life – and because the family could not afford a trip to the hospital – she left it untreated for decades.
About a week ago, a fly entered her left ear and she injured herself while trying to dig the insect out.
Lucky escape: The doctor carefully tweezes out one maggot from the elderly woman’s ear at the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in central China’s Hunan Province
Apparently, a fly had flown into the patient’s ear and laid eggs, which then hatched into maggots. The woman is due to receive a surgical operation on her ear for further treatment
Four days later, however, the pensioner said her left ear began to hurt – and then she found a maggot crawling out of her ear.
A local clinic confirmed her fears – there was an infestation of live fly larvae inside her head – and she was transferred to the provincial capital for treatment.
Doctor Ma said: ‘The fly was most likely attracted to the putrid discharge in her ear canal. And then it laid eggs, which hatched into maggots.’
Doctor Ma said more than 30 maggots were retrieved from the woman’s ear, and some of them had been dead inside the canal.
The woman was given a sterilisation in the ear to control the swelling caused by inflammation.
She is due to receive a surgical operation as further treatment.