The buzzing stopped. Rochelle assumed that was end of it. Within 48 hours on the flight home, she was in serious trouble. 

“Excruciating stopping pain, that never relented.” 

One of the team spotted a small hole in Rochelle’s ear canal.  

“She spent quite a lot of time looking at my ear, without saying what was in there. I think it was after about an hour my mum asked, you know, said “can you see what it is?”

“The doctor has seen there was something crew out, the x go and go in her ear.”    

“And the doctor said ‘If you don't mind I’d prefer to go to speak to the registrar before I tell you anything’. And then, my mum said ‘Please tell us’ and I said what this you know, ‘Please, I want to know’. And at last she said, ‘you got maggots in your ear.’” 

Doctors ordered the CT scan to establish what damage had already been done, how many maggots were still inside Rochelle, and where they were hiding.

“I was very scared, while they were in my brain, I thought this could be very very serious.”   

“Our main concern was the facial nerve risk. And facial nerve controls all of the muscle expression on and outside of your face.” 

The scan showed Rochelle’s ear drum and facial nerve were undamaged, but the maggots had chewed a 12 mm hole in her ear cannel.

“Although the CT guided us, us to the size of the cavity, it was important for us to have a full explore around the soft tissue cavity, and make sure that wasn’t extending any x leading dangerous like the facial nerve or blood vessels.   

Given Rochelle’s true x state, she was dated in preparation for surgery. I’m sure just what they might find, the surgical team explores Rochelle’s ear using a microscope and the speculum.  

And after we pushed this back through the hole I opened out, I saw arising massive maggots.

It was clear that the maggots already extracted weren’t dying alone.