Surgeons at Delhi hospital remove live botfly from an American woman’s eye — here’s how botflies infected her

A 32-year-old American woman, who had visited the Amazon forest recently, was diagnosed with a rare case of myiasis in her eye that happens to be a tissue infection. The lady had approached the doctors at Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj (New Delhi) with symptoms of redness, tenderness and swelling in her right upper eyelid, for 4-6 weeks. The patient was diagnosed and treated successfully for the human botflies problem.

Before flying to India, the patient had seen medical experts in her home country, the US but shockingly, the doctors in the US were unable to diagnose the cause or problem and only provided a symptomatic treatment to the patient.

The patient addressed the doctors at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi describing the sensation of something moving inside her eyelid once in a while for the past 4-6 weeks since she returned from the Amazon jungles.

The patient had visited the Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj, India where she got diagnosed and treated by Dr Mohammad Nadeem, Consultant and Head Emergency Fortis Hospital, ER physician Dr Dheeraj and Dr Narola Yangar (surgery department), wherein the doctors went on to remove three live human botflies that measured almost 2 cm. One of the botflies were removed from the right upper eyelid, while the second one was removed from the back of her neck and the third one was removed from her right forearm.

The entire procedure was done without anaesthesia. In case the live human botflies had not been removed, the damage to tissues would have been more destructible that would have resulted in more complications like extensive erosion of the face, nose and orbit, which according to the doctors could have led to rare meningitis and death.

Similar cases have been reported in India too, mostly from rural areas, mainly with children, wherein the botflies could have entered through musculoskeletal skin lesions or nasal opening.