Lawsuit: Maggots Infest Ear of Nursing Home Resident

After 57 maggots were found in an Arlington Heights woman's ear, the family of a 92-year-old who lived at the Lutheran Home for the Aged has filed a lawsuit against the nursing home, CBS Chicago reports. 

Suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease, Catherine McCann lived at the nursing home located at 800 W. Oakton Street in Arlington Heights, for two years before the alleged infestation, the Daily Herald reports.

After receiving treatment for wax build up, CBS Chicago reports, McCann was prescribed ear drops, which were to be administered by the nursing home staff four times daily, but the maggots went unnoticed. 

According to MSN Now, the infestation was only discovered after McCann, who is unable to speak, began tugging on her ear in mid-September. That's when family members and nurses found maggots crawling out of the 92-year-old’s ear.

Taken to Northwest Community Hospital, doctors removed 57 maggots from her ear, the Huffington Post reports. To document the infestation, doctors at the hospital videotaped the scene before beginning the extraction.

The video was so graphic, a television station declined to air the footage.

Now the woman's family is suing the Arlington Heights nursing home, seeking $50,000 for emotional distress and negligence, according to the Daily Herald. 

A non-profit facility, Lutheran Home for the Aged has denied any wrongdoing, according to the Huffington Post. An investigation by the Illinois Department of Public Health found there were no deficiencies in care.