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A 49-year-old man, Evaldo Aro Chavez, experienced severe headaches, prompting his wife to take him to the doctor. In a startling discovery, doctors removed a large number of live larvae from his skull. Evaldo, a mason who had been working with larvae, had been complaining of pains for a week. Despite initial care in a local hospital, he had to undergo therapy in the state capital of Sao Paulo.
The wife responsible for the discovery noticed larvae in her husband’s skull while he was lying on her lap. She rushed him to the hospital where, with tweezers, they removed some of the stitches. The larvae were found at the end of the previous week, and according to the wife, her husband was subsequently taken to a different hospital in Sao Paulo.
Shortly after, doctors indicated that they had removed all the larvae and bandaged the patient’s head before his discharge from the hospital. However, on Saturday morning, the woman and her husband returned to the hospital where physicians discovered that they had been infected with additional parasites.
They made the decision to return to Prior Grande due to having young children in the city. Upon landing in Rio de Janeiro, doctors in Sao Paulo advised them to urgently find a surgeon to remove all the larvae. They went to Sister Dolce hospital where the doctor informed them that a bandage was needed. Despite arriving at 4:00 p.m. and staying until 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, nothing had been done.
They then traveled to Santos where a call was answered, and a medication bottle was thrown, leading to the emergence of 25 larvae almost immediately. The couple believed that all the larvae had already fled. Nevertheless, when the man returned to the emergency room on Sunday, the staff informed him that there were still larvae in his head, necessitating another dressing. Additional parasites were extracted, and during testing, it was discovered that the mason’s head had many holes. The larvae were feeding on the tissue beneath the skin surface, a situation made possible with the medication.
They reported to Sister Dolce hospital that there was nothing more that could be done, and the only option was to let the patient heal on his own. On Tuesday, the wife accompanied him to the doctor to get a bandage made. By nighttime, she removed the bandage as he was bleeding profusely and discovered other holes in his head that had not been previously observed. There seemed to be no improvement, and the number of larvae was increasing, causing significant discomfort to the patient.
The situation continued to deteriorate, and the family, desperate for help, turned to social media for assistance. Following the appeal, the man was eventually transferred to Sao Paulo for treatment, as they believed he hadn’t received the right care in the current facility. The family expressed fear, stating that something bad was imminent and they were terrified. They lamented the situation, highlighting the inconvenience of having to travel from their city to Sao Paulo for treatment, emphasizing that the man would die if he stayed in the current location.
The agony was so intense that the patient declared he would perish if the situation persisted. G1 interviewed Dr. How Luis Cabal, a neurosurgeon who mentioned that the larvae, known as burr, is not frequent in the city but more common in agricultural areas with more cattle and horses. According to Cabal, this type of larvae produces more in dogs, oxen, and cows but can still be found in both cities and farms.
According to the neurosurgeon, larvae can be contracted due to a lack of basic sanitation, hygiene, or inadequate guidance and instruction. Transmission can also occur through contact with infected animals. When a fly lands on an infected mammal, it becomes responsible for transmitting the larvae. The parasite is then transferred when the fly comes into contact with an open wound on a human being.
The neurosurgeon emphasizes the importance of starting larvae treatment with appropriate antibiotics. Pharmacological therapy is the most effective method for eliminating larvae, especially when their numbers are low. However, if there is a high number of larvae and the doctor cannot remove them individually, it becomes necessary to admit the patient to the hospital for surgical removal.
In a clarification, Sister Dolce, the director of the municipal hospital, notes that the patient was admitted to the unit on Saturday and received all the appropriate help for the situation. After conducting an evaluation, the medical team determined that the patient did not qualify for surgery. The note emphasizes that all outpatient treatments were completed, and therapeutic medication management was implemented throughout the process. Additionally, the patient was instructed to seek assistance from the reference family health unit for daily dressing changes. It is crucial to highlight that the patient and their family members were informed about the type of treatment being used. Hospital personnel are always accessible to provide clarifications if needed.
This concludes the statement. In another similar story, a woman experienced two maggots burrowing into her scalp while on vacation. The bumps on her skull puzzled doctors, and she reported feeling something moving in her scalp.
People often bring back various souvenirs from vacations, including photographs, and in some unusual cases, unexpected skin issues. However, imagine bringing back something unpleasant with you like maggots living in your hairline. After an excursion to Argentina, a woman from the United Kingdom experienced just that. Yikes!
According to a case report published in the British Medical Journal, the anonymous woman visited a doctor shortly after returning home, complaining of pain in her left ear and swollen lymph nodes in her neck. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and to treat her ear infection, she was prescribed medication.
In her 50s, the woman returned to the doctor about a week later with two small, uncomfortable bumps on her head, eventually diagnosed as cystic acne cysts. The doctor prescribed antibiotics to treat her condition. However, over the next 3 weeks, the cysts expanded in size and began inducing stabbing pains. Additionally, they were oozing a clear, odorless fluid.
Despite an early suggestion from a friend that she might be suffering from a parasitic infection, the woman, as stated in the report, didn’t take the suggestion seriously initially because she had been informed that the lumps were simply cysts. However, when the discomfort became intolerable, she raised the possibility of a human bot fly or maggot infection with her doctor. Unfortunately, the case report did not provide information about the doctor’s response.
7 weeks after returning home from her trip, she was brought to the hospital with a serious illness. She reported feeling something moving in her scalp. Although her blood test came back negative at that moment, the lumps were less than an inch in diameter and had tidy apertures known as pums on their surfaces. When she was ultimately diagnosed, it was discovered that she had been infected by two human botfly larvae.
To remove the larvae, doctors intended to smother the lumps with Vaseline, covering the puncture to cut off their air supply, causing them to migrate to the skin surface in search of oxygen. Unfortunately, one of them had died, and the other needed to be medically removed. After rinsing both incisions with saline, antibiotic ointment was applied to the scalp to prevent infection.
But flies lay their eggs on mosquitoes, and their larvae can be transmitted to people if they are bitten by the insects. These flies deposit eggs on mosquitoes, and the warmth of the human body causes the fly eggs to hatch. The larvae then burrow into the skin’s innermost layer, where they can survive for several weeks. During her journey, the woman claimed she was attacked by mosquitoes multiple times, describing it as an unpleasant experience.
