Backpacker's Shocking Discovery After Month of Nosebleeds
Daniela Liverani returned from a backpacking adventure in Southeast Asia with an unexpected and horrifying souvenir that left medical professionals stunned. The Glasgow native, who was 24 at the time, began experiencing unexplained nosebleeds during her 2014 travels through Vietnam and surrounding regions.
Initial Misdiagnosis and Growing Concern
Daniela initially dismissed the frequent nosebleeds as a simple burst blood vessel, particularly since she had recently fallen off a motorbike just before the symptoms began. "I thought I must have burst a blood vessel," she recalled. "After I got home to Edinburgh, the nosebleeds stopped but I started seeing something sticking out of my nostril. I just thought it was congealed blood from the nosebleeds."
Even when the mysterious object began to emerge from her nose, Daniela - who worked as a bartender at the time - continued to believe it was merely a blood clot. "I saw him so many times but I just sniffed him back up," she explained. "I tried to blow him out and grab him but I couldn't get a grip before he retreated back up my nose."
The Horrifying Realisation and Emergency Response
The turning point came during a routine shower when Daniela noticed the object protruding much further than before. "When I was in the shower, he would come right out as far as my bottom lip and I could see him sticking out the bottom of my nose," she described. "I jumped out to look really closely in the mirror and I saw ridges on him. That's when I realised he was an animal."
Daniela and her friend Jenny immediately contacted NHS 24 and were instructed to proceed directly to accident and emergency at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary. Medical staff examined her nose using specialised equipment including a torch, forceps and tweezers in what would become a dramatic extraction procedure.
The Painful Extraction and Medical Aftermath
"The staff were horrified," Daniela recounted of the medical team's reaction. "The doctor used a nose forceps to prise my nostrils open really wide - it was agony. The nurse and Jenny pinned me down to the bed. Whenever the doctor grabbed him, I could feel tugging at the inside of my nose."
After approximately thirty minutes of intense discomfort, the medical team successfully removed the creature. "He was about as long as my forefinger but as fat as my thumb," Daniela described. "He could move so fast as well, which freaked me out. I've no idea how he got up there but he'd have got bigger and bigger from feeding on my blood."
The leech, which Daniela and her friend had nicknamed "Mr Curly" due to its curled position within her nostril, was sent to a specialist hospital in London for disease testing. Fortunately, no diseases were transmitted, and the creature - now rock hard with Daniela's blood - was returned to her in a jar for disposal.
Expert Analysis and Potential Dangers
Mark Siddal, curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and a recognised leech specialist, provided insight into how such an incident could occur. "Daniela could have picked up this leech from water in Vietnam, if she had been swimming," he explained. "Or it could have gone in through her mouth, as she was drinking water."
Siddal noted that despite being present for approximately a month, the leech wouldn't have grown significantly during that period. "These leeches don't grow all that quickly, so it wouldn't have been much smaller when it went up there. It would have been quite sizeable," he stated. "It's interesting that people don't feel these leeches go up their nose."
Medical professionals warned Daniela about the potential severity of her situation. She revealed: "I asked the doctor what would've happened if I hadn't gone to hospital and she said he'd probably have worked his way into my brain." At one point during the ordeal, Daniela could actually feel the creature positioned near her eyebrow, highlighting just how far it had travelled within her nasal passages.
The experience left Daniela understandably shaken. "It made me squirm," she admitted, reflecting on the entire traumatic episode that began with seemingly innocent nosebleeds during her Asian adventure and culminated in an emergency medical procedure to remove an unwelcome travelling companion.
