In what appears to be a premise for a horror science fiction film, a British woman returned from her Peruvian vacation, bringing not just memories but flesh-eating maggots in her head as well.

Twenty-seven-year-old Rochelle Harris first thought nothing of the blinding headaches that she started getting during her trip back to the UK. However, the headaches became unbearable within hours, with one side of her face suffering from excruciating pain. She had also started hearing strange scratching sounds in her head.

The next morning, she woke to a pillow soaked with fluid that came out from her ear, according to the Daily Mail.

She went to the hospital to have her headache checked up, but doctors only thought it could be minor ear infection so she was referred to the Ear Nose and Throat department for further examination.

That’s when the ENT specialist saw maggots in her ear.

The doctors feared that the flesh-eating larvae already reached her brain, which would cause meningitis, or that they feasted on the patient’s facial nerve, which would render her face paralysed.

Fortunately for Ms Harris, an emergency brain scan showed no damage to her ear drum, blood vessels, or facial nerve. But again, unfortunately, the maggots also managed to chew a 12mm hole into an ear canal.

The doctors tried to drown the maggots by flooding the patient’s ear canal with olive oil, but after overnight observation, the olive oil did no harm to the maggots.

The doctors tried to get the maggots out of her head, but the larvae retreated farther into Ms Harris’ head as they delved deeper.

Already traumatised by what she unwittingly took home from Peru, Ms Harris was sedated so the surgeons could explore her ear using a microscope and speculum. And if they thought finding one or two maggots inside the patient’s head is shocking enough, they were in for some more jaw-dropping discovery.

Pushing deeper into Harris’ ear, the doctors found a “writhing mass of maggots.” The two maggots they had removed were in fact not alone. Ms Harris was hosting a family of eight large maggots, which are from the eggs of a New World Army Screw Worm Fly.

Scientifically named Cochliomyia, New World Army Screw Worm Flies thrive in hot and tropical countries. Their larvae, which were found in Ms Harris’ head, feed on living tissue, and can cause deep abrasions in the skin.

So how did she become a human incubator for a fly’s eggs?

Ms Harris recalled walking through a swarm of flies when she was in Peru. A fly got inside her ear, but she had shooed it away and thought nothing more of it. Little did she know that fly was able to leave her with her eggs in the short period of time that it had been inside her ear.

Her ordeal is featured in a new Discovery Channel UK documentary titled “Bugs, Bites, and Parasites,” which will be aired in England on Sunday, July 21.

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