NEW DELHI: A 12-year-old girl in Delhi may soon earn herself a place in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not presenting a bizarre case where ants keep coming out of her right eye.
Baffled eye doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi who performed simple eye surgery could not locate any tracts from where the ants are coming. They have sent a small piece of the eye tissue for further examination.
The doctors who first thought they had to some extent controlled the number of black ants emerging out of the girl’s eye decided to operate when they discovered a second variety of ants coming out.
They say earlier recorded strange cases mention only maggots and bugs coming out of a person’s eyes. Certain helminthic worms such as tapeworms and guinea-worms which are ingested through infected food and water are known to come out through eyes and ears.
Using mild chemical treatment the AIIMS doctors have so far reduced the number of ants emerging from the night eye of the girl from about 50 a day to six to seven a day according to Dr Anita Panda associate professor of ophthalmology at the ophthalmology center in AIIMS.
It all began three weeks ago for the sprightly seventh standard student in Chandni Chowk when she first complained of intense pain near her right temple followed by mild irritation in her right eye. Soon after a dead black ant emerged from the eye’s lower lid.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 8, 1991
