Kanyi Okeke
12-year-old Shreya Darji, from the state of Gujarat in western India, is experiencing a peculiar case of ants. Monster ants crawl out of her ears each and every day, much to the dismay of her parents and specialists. They have no clue where the ants are coming from or how to make them stop.
The issue began in August last year when Shreya complained of ear pains and her parents saw ants leaving both her ears. They rushed her to the hospital where specialists conducted scans and found an extensive number of creepy insects living in her drum canal. They’ve removed hundreds as such, yet without any result – the ants simply continue duplicating at a faster rate and at least 10 comes out of her ears everyday.
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.’
