Maggot works its magic

BismiLlahiRahmaniRahim.....(Self-reminder: do start with bismiLlah in everything that we do!!)

This entry is after a while since the exam has finished. It's weird thought that i still have classes to attend to until July. Anyway, now im starting to get really excited with the hospital workload..haha...again, a bit weird since ive kept on complaining about the stressful environment in the ward. I conclude that the feeling will keep on changing as time goes by....(sometimes it can be interesting and vice verca)

Okey, lets start with what i did today....(i did accounter a few other interesting cases through out the week but im not going to focus on those matter...maybe later probably)

One of the patient, a male patient around late 40s, who is a diabetic, presented with 2 deep ulcers on his right foot (i didnt get to see those wounds though). The interesting part of the case is that the patient is under maggot therapy. I wasnt so sure at first but later that day, i find out that the maggots were being put into the wound overnight to eat all the dead cells. Technically i dont really know how does it being done but according to the patient, those maggots came out early that morning with stomach full. "They are all over the bed...", the nurses turn out screaming, not the patient!!..According to him, "The maggots have done their magic!!"

My thought went off to hundreds or thousand years back during the life of Prophet Ayub, when he suffered with some sort of illness and all the wounds that he got were all occupied with maggots. Even when these maggots fall over, he picked them up and placed them back into his wound saying that "These are their food...".

Scientifically, Prophet Ayud actually has acted brilliantly to let those maggots eating all the dead cells inside the wound. These eventually can cure the wound! SubhanaLlah...!!! That's the 'Ilm of God, that has been given to Prophet Ayub back those days.

Thats all for now....Im having my dinner just now, and im still at the dining table.....typing this entry. Hopefully there is something beneficial to everybody else to ponder about.

wassalam.

Im attaching an article from bbc about maggot.....have fun

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Saturday, March 6, 1999 Published at 11:43 GMT

Doctor! There's a maggot in my wound

Doctor! There's a maggot in my wound
Maggots have had a bad press. Normally associated with disease and rotting flesh, doctors now realise they can treat infections.

The squirming larvae were first found to have curative properties during World War I.

Dr William Baer noticed that maggots were getting into the wounds of people injured on the battlefield.

Instead of making the wound worse, they helped clear it up.

Dr Baer starting using maggot therapy at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore - with excellent results.

But with the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s, the therapy went out of fashion.

However, according to the BBC's Trust Me I'm a Doctor programme, they are now making a comeback because of concerns about infections that are resistant to antibiotic treatment.

Breathing through their bottoms

Dr Stephen Thomas is the sole UK breeder of maggots.

He keeps flies in a sealed room and feeds them on pig's liver.

The flies lay their eggs on the liver. These are then separated and sterilised and develop into maggots.

The tiny maggots are sent out to hospitals in vials.

Maggots clean wounds by eating dead tissue. They first spit out enzymes that liquefy the tissue and then suck up like soup.

"They are very gregarious creatures and like to feed in close groups so they all get the benefits of the secretions they are producing."

Maggots are also able to breathe through their bottoms which means they can work very quickly because they do not have to keep coming up for air while they are feeding.

Bradford Royal Infirmary's leg ulcer unit is one hospital which uses maggot therapy.

'Better than surgeons'

Kath Vowden, a nurse at the hospital, says people think the maggots are going to be big fishing-type maggots.

But the ones used for treating wounds are very tiny.

They are put on the surface of the wound and then sealed in with a bandage.

The maggots only feed on the dead tissue.

Kath's husband Matthew Vowden is a vascular surgeon at the hospital.

He said: "Maggots are very small. They can be very exact about what they do. They can dissolve and digest dead tissue.

"A surgeon cannot be that exact and will harm some of the living tissue."

During the course of a three-day treatment, the maggots' bodies, full of dead tissue, expand from an average length of two milimetres to three times the size.

They leave wounds pink and healthy.

Mr Vowden says many doctors are still reluctant to use maggot therapy. He believes this is because they are not advertised like drugs are and because patients are put off by them.

"Patients expect tablets. They don't expect maggots," he said.

Trust Me I'm a Doctor is on BBC Two on Fridays at 8pm. The maggot item is on 12 March.