Every so often you come across a story about some kind of brain-eating amoeba or some kind of peen hole breaching parasite. This is why I only go swimming in chlorinated pools. Daniela Liverani’s story is on par with those other horrific tales.
A backpacker who suffered from persistent nosebleeds was horrified to discover they were caused by a three-inch-long leech which had been living up her nose for a month.
Daniela Liverani had been travelling around south-east Asia when she was involved in a motorbike crash.
She had thought that a lump poking from the bottom of her nose was congealed blood from a burst blood vessel after the accident.
Oh, it gets so much worse and far more graphic. Wanna know how Liverani discovered that the dangling blood pocket was actually a blood sucking little monster that was taking the scenic route toward her brain? You know you do.
‘I tried to blow him out and grab him but I couldn’t get a grip of him before he retreated back up my nose.
‘When I was in the shower, he would come right out as far as my bottom lip and I could see him sticking out the bottom of my nose.
‘So when that happened, I jumped out of the shower to look really closely in the mirror and I saw ridges on him. That’s when I realized he was an animal.
Liverani proceeded to go to the hospital at that point. Once there, doctors used a torch and forceps to remove the adorable bundle and treat her unusual and scary medical condition. It took a half hour but I’m sure the memory will last a lifetime.
So, how did Liverani pick up her unwanted passenger? One expert has an idea.
Mark Siddal, curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and an expert on leeches, said: ‘Daniela could have picked up this leech from water in Vietnam, if she had been swimming.
‘Or it could have gone in through her mouth, as she was drinking water.
Unfortunately, it’s not very practical to put duct tape over all of your holes or avoid drinking water while traveling. Until science finds a way to stop dangerous things from swimming or crawling all up into me, though, I think I’ll just stay sat on my couch drinking bottled water. It’s worked for me so far and obesity seems like a slower killer than a motivated leech.
Source: The Daily Mail