A mum has described how she felt the "worst pain" she'd ever felt as a parasite slithered out from what she thought was a spot above her eye. Louise Edwards woke up one morning to find what she thought was a spot or a bite.
But, as the day went on, the spot got bigger. Soon, it swelled up, causing her eye to close. So, the next day, July 23, she went to St Paul's Eye Hospital in Royal Liverpool Hospital to get it checked over.
Louise, 34, from Allerton, told the LiverpoolECHO: "I was in my house, I hadn't really been anywhere recently. I was in Turkey around a month before, and at the caravan a week before, but nothing came up in the days after.
"I sleep with the windows open, so maybe something got in, then as I woke up and had this thing, like a pimple. They (St Paul's) tried to squeeze it and gave me antibiotics and sent me home.
"The next day I couldn't even see because my eye had closed over. I have really bad eyesight and the eye with the spot was my good eye. I couldn't see a thing so went back."
Louise explained how it was the "worst pain she had ever felt" and she could feel the pain in her teeth, head, and eyes. Two nurses saw her and told her to keep up with the antibiotics.
She said: "I saw my neighbour on the Monday (July 25) and she asked me what had happened. When I explained she said to use boiling water straight from the kettle to draw whatever it is to the top.
"So that's what I did. I felt this popping sensation and as I squeezed it this thing started coming out. I shouted my dad to come and have a look and he said it was some sort of parasite with legs."
Louise went straight back to the eye hospital with the "parasite" and showed nurses a picture. she said: "One of the nurses laughed and said it looked like something out of an alien movie.
"I felt like I was in an alien movie. They told me to carry on with the antibiotics and go home."
Louise now has an appointment booked in with her GP and hopes to find out more about what it was that came out of her eyelid. After sharing images on Facebook, a number of people said it could be a botfly.
She said: "I took it to the School of Tropical Medicine, but they said you have to be referred. I just want to know what it is and warn people."
