ew,ew,ewwwwwwww - page 2

1. 
   Feb 20, '04

   Occupation: Operating Room Nurse Specialty: 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER ; From: US ; Joined: Jun '03; Posts: 17,036; Likes: 1,007

   Quote from kc ccurn

   We use leeches as well. They work wonderfully! We had a 10 year old girl who had severed her hand in a farming accident. We put leeches on her hand numerous times a day. We started a poster board and she would name the leeches. 'Superman' was the pig of the group.
   
   I won't forget the time I went to remove a leech from her hand and he wasn't there. I followed the bloody~slimy trail out her room and around the corner then lost him :roll Okay, explain that one to housekeeping We let her keep 'Superman' to take back and show her classmates.

   "Yes i seemed to have misplaced my leech, he answers to the name of Superman. Please call me if you hear from him....." LOL
2. 
   Feb 20, '04

   Occupation: icu nurse Joined: Jul '02; Posts: 10,260; Likes: 233

   Here is a link to a site explaining more about maggot therapy - just don't ask me to be part of it!!
   
   http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/com/patholo...an/home_pg.htm
   
   This is the original thread about this
   
   https://allnurses.com/forums/showthr...hlight=maggots
   
   Okay - world's grossest picture coming up
   
   
   
   on second thoughts - no - you don't want to see it.

   Last edit by gwenith on Feb 20, '04
3. 
   Feb 20, '04

   Occupation: SICU, MICU Joined: Nov '03; Posts: 309; Likes: 22

   I haven't worked w/therapeutic maggots, but I have w/leeches....they do wonders to help heal wounds! I have to admit that I would choose leeches over maggots though.
4. 
   Feb 20, '04

   Occupation: Trying self-employ this time around Joined: Feb '04; Posts: 61; Likes: 1

   
   I used maggots 30 yrs ago in WI...no not WW1...some kind of wound that wasen't responding to antibiotic RX...anyway it may have been ugly but the wound was literally "cleaned" out by those little buggars and the wound actually
   healed....UGLY can work at times!
5. 
   Feb 20, '04

   Occupation: RN on a surgical floor Joined: Jun '03; Posts: 64; Likes: 31

   I saw maggots in a wound center. This guy had a diabetic ulcer on his foot. When the maggots went in they were fairly small, but boy when they came out they were huge!!!!!
6. 
   Feb 20, '04

   Joined: Feb '04; Posts: 16; Likes: 2

   Back in the good old days ,1963, when I was a student, a diabetic patient had guillotine above knee amputations of both legs.Due ti the type of surgery there was no way for these wounds to heal and of course they became severely infected. Enter the maggots!!! over time the areas were clean and the surgeons proceeded with whatever type of grafting done in those times. I do remember seeing this fellow out in the community rolling around in his wheelchair the picture of health. Sometimes everything old is new again.
7. 
   Feb 21, '04

   Occupation: Med Surg/CCU/Charge NOCs Specialty: 8 year(s) of experience in MedSurg, LTC ; Joined: Feb '03; Posts: 88; Likes: 7

   I saw it on a TV show once. Apparently they eat only the necrotic stuff and leave healthy tissue alone, are very selective in this aspect and they are grown under controlled conditions to be sterile. I can just see myself suggesting a maggot tx on the NP board
8. 
   Feb 21, '04

   Joined: Apr '02; Posts: 31,960; Likes: 21,037

   Bring in some good articles/literature on it and they'd have no room for (sound) argument against it. Emotionally, though, as with some of us, some of the NP board may have trouble "stomaching" the concept.
9. 
   Feb 21, '04

   Joined: Feb '04; Posts: 23

   I would not, could not, participate in this type of therapy. I know it is a wonderful thing, but I get the willies when it comes to creepy crawlies . I practically ran out of my room one night when watching trauma life in the E.R. and this woman came in with her son for an infection in her foot. When they looked at it, maggots where inside (chills). I am too afraid to look on the ground when it rans because I know that some where there are worms near by (super chills and itchy). They use leeches at a local hospital that I use to work for. One day, the nurse was putting some on a post-op patient and she dropped it and it got away. All that week I was verrrrry careful where I walked, sat, and placed my hands.
10. 
    Feb 21, '04

    Occupation: Support Staff - MRDD Joined: Oct '03; Posts: 394; Likes: 11

    Let me introduce you to my little friends -
    
    this one is fred, here is george, this is shirley, over there is bob, and that BIG one is homer, and that tiny one is vince...
    
    Yeah, I know someone couldnt conceivably name all their maggots, but maybe their leeches... :chuckle
11. 
    Feb 21, '04

    Occupation: Occupational Health Nurse Joined: Dec '03; Posts: 155; Likes: 11

    I've got more maggot stories if you are up to it....here's one
    
    A little old lady who stood about 4 foot 6. Broke her leg several YEARS before I met her. Her leg was casted and she was sent home with crutches and instructions to return to the cast clinic for followup...you guessed it, she never came back. Jump forward about 2 years. Her and her husband are investigated by social services due to the gross neglect of the yard and they find a very smelly, demented couple. One with a two year old cast on her leg. She was admitted and while taking the cast off (not nice experience, I can tell you), packed into her cast was newspapers, plastic bags etc which were nicely containing her whole army of maggots that had been very busy keeping her heel ulcer nice and clean. Make a long story short, she was not infected, the cast was smelly but her wound was clean. She rehabed enough to walk again and was sent to long term care.

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