If you thought maggots in the ear were bad, you’ve been warned: this is much, much worse.
In video of an endoscopic procedure that tiptoes the line between medical marvel and pure horror, a patient has live maggots removed from his nasal cavity.
The graphic footage was shared earlier this year by Dr. Meenesh Juvekar, an ENT consultant at Bombay Hospital in Mumbai, India. It is four minutes of stomach-turning terror — especially when the removed maggots writhe around.
The condition is called myiasis, a parasitic infection of fly larva. According to the CDC, it generally occurs in tropical and subtropical climates. Flies lay eggs in an untreated or open sore, and when the eggs hatch, the maggots begin eating the surrounding tissue.
Not surprisingly, myiasis can be fatal if left untreated. So while this video is not for the squeamish, the doctor probably saved this patient’s life.
According to the Daily Mail, the patient in this case was a 55-year-old man who ended up having 50 maggots removed from his sinuses during the two-hour procedure. He is said to have recovered from the infection completely.
