This 12-year-old girl above has had more than 1,000 giant ants removed from her ears within the last 5 months, after doctors find them n...
This 12-year-old girl above has had more than 1,000 giant ants removed from her ears within the last 5 months, after doctors find them nesting in her drum canal.
Shreya Darji, from Deesa, in Gujarat, western India, has around ten live ants crawl out of her ears daily, her parents say. Shreya's problem first started as an irritation in her ear in August last year, and when she visited her local hospital, doctors found the ants inside her ear canal.
So far, doctors have removed hundreds of ants, but despite trying 'everything' the problem persists and the ants continue to breed. A video filmed with an endoscopic camera shows a doctor removing what appears to be dead ants from her ear.
Her desperate parents say they have tried everything, from traditional medical aids to witch doctors, but the ants keep emerging from her ears.
Dr Jawahar Talsania, 58, senior Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon, in Gujarat, said:
‘We have conducted all possible scans on the child including an MRI and CT scan but they are all normal. We cannot find any abnormality in her ears.
'She doesn’t experience any kind of pain - despite the ants biting her - and no damage has been found to the eardrums.
‘The family live a normal life and they have a healthy environment so we can’t even blame their living conditions. We’ve not seen anything like this in our medical history.’
Dr Jawahar explained that he has tried to even suffocate the ants with drops but they continue to breed.
‘We don’t believe the ants are laying eggs inside the ear as we've not spotted a queen ant inside. We are completely perplexed,’ he said, adding he has already used a camera inside the ear to check for an egg chamber.
Father Sanjay Darji, 40, who runs a small television repair business, in Gujarat, said his daughter would sit in school and ants often crawled out of her ear.
He’s terrified the condition is getting worse and not better.
He said:
‘I have done everything I can. I have taken her to the best doctors but they have failed to solve the problem. I just hope things get better.
'I’m worried about her future and how this will affect her studies. She is a brilliant child and she’s already missed a lot of school.
Other children in her school and community are teasing her and it’s already making her feel bad. I need this problem cured as quickly as possible before it affects her confidence in life.’
