11/10/2007

A different look at it...

DeLAND, Fla. -- A Volusia County nursing home resident who was taken to a hospital on Wednesday for respiratory problems had maggots in one of his eyes, an infected breathing tube, a partially inserted catheter and bed sores, according to authorities.
After reading this story I was quickly outraged but then I did some further research and I found that maggots although disgusting they actually have an important job. Maggots are the world's smallest surgeons. In fact they are better than surgeons - they are much cheaper and work 24 hours a day. University of Manchester Professor has been known to use maggots to treat diabetic foot ulcers of patients for quite some time now. I'm pretty sure that the patient in the nursing care center didn't have an ulcer on his foot because the maggot was found in his eye. I just hope that this is an isolated incident and not something that will be popping up throughout the US.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm pretty sure he wasn't supposed to have maggots in his eye either. It goes to show you how poorly run our nursing home system is for the elderly.