A four-year-old Indian girl has had to have around 80 maggots removed from her ear after they took hold thanks to poor hygiene.
Radhika Mandloi, a youngster from central India, began to suffer from extreme pain and itching in her left ear last week. Her parents at first weren’t worried about her discomfort, but when she would not stop crying they took her to the hospital.
Here doctors were shocked to find that a blow fly, of the sort attracted to bad smells, had found its way into her ear and laid around 80 larva. Had the insects been left any longer without intervention, they could have begun to eat at her brain, putting her life at risk.
She has since had several MRI scans to ensure the maggots had not entered her brain.
Dr Raj Kumar Mundra, who treated the girl in hospital, said:
“I was very shocked to see so many eggs. This type of bug is attracted to foul smells and extremely unhygienic conditions.”
“It’s evident this family live in unhygienic conditions which has seen the young girl suffer as a consequence. It’s a very sad state of affairs.”
He also noted that the “ears and nose are areas most vulnerable and open” and that while they’d had previous cases with “two or three eggs”, this is the first time they’d seen any patients with “such a huge amount”.
Once doctors figured out what was causing Radhika’s pain, they removed the insects in two sittings. Both operations, lasting for about 90 minutes each, killed the maggots while they were still in the ear.
Dr Mundra warned that the worms could cause severe damage to the ear bone due to their movements.
Radhika is still in hospital under close observation. Her bone and skin have been partially damaged, but she is expected to recovery.
Dr Mundra said that no ear infection should ever be ignored, nothing that:
“Any discharge of fluid in the ear should not be ignored as it could attract larva, which reproduces quickly.”
“The ears and nose are close to the brain and need proper hygiene.”
Source: Daily Mail
