Patient with maggots in head

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I saw this video of a patient with maggots in his head wound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QJNxwvvS8Y

What could have caused this? Have you ever seen such a thing?

Could the human botfly do this? Is this maggot therapy?

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Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

We were just talking at work the other day about a similar situation. Man in an area ECF had brain cancer and the tumor was coming out of his skin. There was a fly in the building and the next thing they knew..... Gross, I know. But can easily see how it can happen.

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So the ordinary housefly can lay eggs as soon as the skin is broken?

After the fly deposits the eggs, I wonder how long until the maggots appear.

Also, couldn't they have bandaged or covered the tumor somehow to protect it from flies?

We were just talking at work the other day about a similar situation. Man in an area ECF had brain cancer and the tumor was coming out of his skin. There was a fly in the building and the next thing they knew..... Gross, I know. But can easily see how it can happen.
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Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.
So the ordinary housefly can lay eggs as soon as the skin is broken?

I would assume that if deposits its eggs in a warm moist spot, ie..Tissue with excellent blood supply. As far as how long before eggs hatch, I looked it up and the article said 12-24 hours for the eggs to hatch in a warm environment.

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I have seen this before in a patient I once had. It was an unusual situation as the patient had let this tumor go on for years and it had pretty much eaten away at the side of his face. When I did wet to dry dressing changes his eyeball was completely exposed, looked like it was hanging on just by the optic nerve. Something I'll never forget! He had been packing the wound at home for years is what he told me! Anyway, maggots got in there when he was at home and by the time he got to my floor the wound was infested. They went away after a couple of days of us doing wound care though.

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Specializes in CVICU.

Ok, I wish I had not looked!! Now my skin is crawling! I have seen some rough things but creepy crawlies in flesh is just too much for me!

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What kind of tool did you use to scoop them out?

I have seen this before in a patient I once had. It was an unusual situation as the patient had let this tumor go on for years and it had pretty much eaten away at the side of his face. When I did wet to dry dressing changes his eyeball was completely exposed, looked like it was hanging on just by the optic nerve. Something I'll never forget! He had been packing the wound at home for years is what he told me! Anyway, maggots got in there when he was at home and by the time he got to my floor the wound was infested. They went away after a couple of days of us doing wound care though.
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Specializes in Developmentally Disabled, LTC, Clinic, Hospital.

:omy: :bugeyes: :barf02:

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WOW!! That gave me the chills!!! Did not make me sick, but really made my skin crawl! Poor kid...how could his parents let a wound like that go for so long and get that bad???

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Looked.. :omy:... then I :thnkg:.. in 35 years, this was, at most one of the most alarming (not disgusting) things that I have ever seen. The maggots where obviously there for a reason. What really sent my skin itching was when the maggots went in a little bit.:omy: My other concern was if this kid wore a hat for 2-3 weeks; those suckers were LARGE. In 1 year, I will become an R.N, I am POSITIVE that it gets more interesting than that. In the meantime :scrm:

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OMG. But after I watched this thing in horror, I was FURTHER grossed out by clicking one of the videos on the right side, one of those "if you liked that, you'll like this" kind of selections. Showed a British woman, back from some exotic vacation, that had a single HUGE maggot embedded in her scalp (she thought it was a large pimple).

While I was totally skeeved, I was intrigued by the technique the doc used to get the danged thing out: a square "plastic" patch of petroleum jelly to smother the thing (they need air), and force it to the surface; once it burrowed its way through the film patch the doc grabbed it with tweezers and pulled out this FAT FAT grubby thing. Nearly lost it.

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You're talking about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhRiMFvVL08&feature=related

That's the human botfly.

Its life cycle involves depositing maggots under human skin, or on the eye (goes down to conjunctiva area, under skin flap). It's really big in Central America.

I wonder if that huge maggot thing they pull out is actually a colony of hundreds of maggots, ready to hatch? That's why I was wondering if this boy in the original video could have been a victim of the botfly, where the case was allowed to progress under the skin.

OMG. But after I watched this thing in horror, I was FURTHER grossed out by clicking one of the videos on the right side, one of those "if you liked that, you'll like this" kind of selections. Showed a British woman, back from some exotic vacation, that had a single HUGE maggot embedded in her scalp (she thought it was a large pimple).

While I was totally skeeved, I was intrigued by the technique the doc used to get the danged thing out: a square "plastic" patch of petroleum jelly to smother the thing (they need air), and force it to the surface; once it burrowed its way through the film patch the doc grabbed it with tweezers and pulled out this FAT FAT grubby thing. Nearly lost it.

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