A family is suing a local nursing home after making a horrible and shocking discovery in their loved one’s ear. The 92-year-old woman was complaining of wax build up in her ear, which turned into a case of nursing home neglect when doctors found and removed 57 maggots from the woman’s ear.
The family is suing the nursing home for negligence and emotional distress after the woman was hospitalized and larvae were found. According to the family, the elderly woman frequently gets ear infections and was treated with ear drops after seeing the facility’s staff doctor.
It was on the last day the woman was prescribed to the drops that she began scratching her ear and a staff member noticed what appeared to be larvae. The facility’s director says she and her staff are just as concerned as the family regarding the incident. An expert hired by the family revealed that he believes the maggots could have been in the woman’s ear for up to three days before being discovered.
An attorney for the family is raising the question of if the elderly woman was even treated for a routine infection in the first place, as the drops should have probably killed anything living inside. There was no infestation of the nursing home found, and the staff believes that a fly possibly got inside the woman’s ear during one of her usual walks outdoors.
This family did the right thing by contacting an expert and an attorney regarding this sad, disturbing situation. If you find yourself noticing nursing home neglect, it may be in your best interest to call a lawyer as well.