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Well, here’s one that would send your correspondent screaming for a padded cell.
A Hunter hospital has been thrust into crisis after being forced to close its second ward in less than a month following maggots falling onto patients from the air conditioning vents.
I don’t know about the rest of you Good Oil readers, but maggots are a particular horror of mine. If O’Brien wanted to break me in Room 101, forget the rats: maggots would have me vowing that two plus two is five, in seconds.
On Monday, the Calvary Mater Hospital declared a Code Yellow – or an internal emergency – following the discovery the maggots had fallen from the ceiling vents of the inpatient haematology ward, also known as ward 5C.
It’s understood the maggots were first noticed last Tuesday, January 13.
However, on Monday the situation escalated when maggots fell onto patients in their beds and the decision was made to close the ward.
So, how the hell did it start raining maggots?
Flies have been known to lay their eggs in mould infestations, as the growth breaks down organic waste and creates a nutrient-rich environment for maggots.
A spokesperson for NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said his office had “sought urgent advice from NSW Health and the local health district on this matter”.
A Hunter New England Health spokesperson apologised to impacted patients, saying their relocation would allow specialist pest controllers access to the affected areas. “The affected four-bed room, where pests were discovered today was vacated immediately and sealed off,” they said.
Recently, a patient in a mental health hospital in Launceston was found with maggot-infested wounds. A similar incident happened in NSW in 2019.
A regional New South Wales aged care facility is facing further sanctions after a resident was admitted to hospital with maggots in his head wound.
The man, a resident of a residential aged care facility in Eden on the NSW south coast, was taken to hospital this week after the discovery.
He is undergoing treatment.
And in the UK in 2005:
A woman found maggots wriggling on her dying mother’s face while she was treated in a hospital’s intensive care unit, it emerged yesterday. Nyree Ellison Anjos spotted the fly larvae near a feeding tube at the Gloucestershire Royal hospital. Her mother, Christine Ellison, died soon after.
Her daughter spoke out yesterday after learning that another part of the hospital had to be fumigated when maggots were found on a sandwich. Mrs Ellison Anjos, from Robinswood, Gloucester, said she noticed that her mother seemed uncomfortable and kept touching her nose. She said: “She had a tube inserted in her nose and I saw something. It was yellow and it was wriggling. There was a big black fly buzzing around.”
Indeed, according to this Reddit thread, it seems maggot-related problems are more common than I’d like to think about in hospitals.
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