Free Republic

It all started next to a field of grazing sheep in Greece, where an unidentified 58-year-old was working outdoors in the dry September heat. She “noticed numerous flies swarming around her face,” according to a new medical report, and about a week later, she began experiencing pain in her sinuses. The next few weeks brought “severe coughing,” but no other symptoms. Until one day, Oct. 15 to be exact, she sneezed out a “worm.” Soon after, an ear, nose and throat doctor got to work surgically removing 10 larvae and a pupa — a teenage insect between the larval and...

About a week after the Rindone family returned from their tropical summer vacation, 7-year-old Andrew started complaining about a bump on his head. "It did hurt a little," Andrew said. "And, it did itch." The boy's pediatrician thought he had an infection and prescribed antibiotics. But the bump just kept getting bigger, and a small pinhole began to appear. Then one day, Andrew was on the couch when his mother saw something that horrified her. "We kind of noticed something peek out of the hole," Jennifer Rindone said. The small opening was apparently a breathing hole for the larvae growing...

An American holidaymaker got a nasty surprise when he discovered that the lumps on his scalp were not bites or shingles, but live botfly maggots. 'I thought I was going crazy' Aaron Dallas, from Colorado, US, sought medical advice when the bumps appeared on his scalp after a trip to Belize this summer. But it was not until the bumps started moving that doctors realised Dallas had five live maggots inside his head.