"I Won't Spoil The Ending" - January 15, 2021

[DrTom]

A memory popped immediately into my head when I first saw BATHE MAGGOT.

Back in the late 80's, I decided to celebrate finishing grad school by doing a 23-day Outward Bound Course in North Carolina. It was fairly primitive: no tents just tarps strung overhead, purifying water from streams, carrying everything on our backs, etc. We had several grueling 3-day hikes, 3 days of whitewater canoeing, 3 days of solo, and 3 days of rock climbing. The rock climbing was the start of my misadventure.

For rock climbing, we wore tennis shoes. So I peeled off my wool socks, stuffed them into my hiking boots, and forgot about them. When it was time to hike back to our base camp 3 days later, I pulled out my socks and noticed that they were "moving". As were the interior of my boots. They were covered with maggots--teeming with maggots! The flies had been busy while we were climbing rockfaces. Other people had maggots as well (bootlaces, bandanas, socks) but no one else had them in their boots. I got an empty plastic garbage bag for my boots, tied that to my backpack, and hiked back to camp in my tennis shoes. But that wasn't sustainable because we had another 3-day hike starting the next day.

Fortunately, there was a well with a pump at base camp. So I bathed the heck out of those maggots! I filled the boots with water and dumped them out--and repeated that many times. I scrubbed away with my bandana. And finally (in what was probably a small ethical lapse), I took the bleach from the first aid kit and mixed that with water, poured it into my boots and let it sit overnight. I did discover that these boots really were watertight!

Meanwhile, back at the camp, someone took people's maggot-ridden bootlaces and bandanas and such and boiled them to get rid of the maggots. In our cooking pot. We had rice for dinner that night--I didn't have much of an appetite!

My efforts seemed to pay off. I didn't see any maggots in the boots the next day. I did wear my dark blue hiking socks, figuring it would be easier to see maggots crawling out of the boots that way. Earlier in the course, I had gouged my shin on a jagged branch and it was looking a little infected. I figured that if any maggots did venture upwards then perhaps they would do a little therapeutic wound debridement. I know--gross nursing humor.

Interesting, though I never had maggot boots (or kinky boots either) I did write and entire article on Maggot Therapy. Gross or not it still has application today. You do have to explain to the patient and family why their bandage might move, but hey, the stink of a necrotic wound resolves in a day or so and you cannot get better microsurgeons than maggots! You used to have to order them from California, and of course they got them to you by flying them - always cracked me up and kept the humor buzzing. After all why shouldn't they "Help Me, Help Me!" (OK, here it comes, I'm ready.....)

[DrTom]

Wendy, in the barn at Primitive Hall do they have Primitive Oates?

Dr. Tom,
Rather long discography on their part, but because I Did It In A Minute,
Sara Smile, but She's Gone.
Say It Isn't So, I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) and Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid

You will not believe this, Dr. Tom ... there actually IS a musical connection (if not H&O) with the barn, and not a happy one! During a wedding reception one of the band members "took a break" out by the barn ruins, tripped and broke his ankle. He sued us. It ended up being a very expensive fall in (near) Philadelphia for our insurance company.

Hmm, sounds like this was a "Man on a Mission". You should have told him "Don't go out" there is a "Man-eater" out there and if you do you had better "Watch your Back". You know, since it was Philadelphia you should have gotten the Eagles to smack him in his "Lying Eyes"

[HunterX]

A memory popped immediately into my head when I first saw BATHE MAGGOT.

Back in the late 80's, I decided to celebrate finishing grad school by doing a 23-day Outward Bound Course in North Carolina. It was fairly primitive: no tents just tarps strung overhead, purifying water from streams, carrying everything on our backs, etc. We had several grueling 3-day hikes, 3 days of whitewater canoeing, 3 days of solo, and 3 days of rock climbing. The rock climbing was the start of my misadventure.

For rock climbing, we wore tennis shoes. So I peeled off my wool socks, stuffed them into my hiking boots, and forgot about them. When it was time to hike back to our base camp 3 days later, I pulled out my socks and noticed that they were "moving". As were the interior of my boots. They were covered with maggots--teeming with maggots! The flies had been busy while we were climbing rockfaces. Other people had maggots as well (bootlaces, bandanas, socks) but no one else had them in their boots. I got an empty plastic garbage bag for my boots, tied that to my backpack, and hiked back to camp in my tennis shoes. But that wasn't sustainable because we had another 3-day hike starting the next day.

Fortunately, there was a well with a pump at base camp. So I bathed the heck out of those maggots! I filled the boots with water and dumped them out--and repeated that many times. I scrubbed away with my bandana. And finally (in what was probably a small ethical lapse), I took the bleach from the first aid kit and mixed that with water, poured it into my boots and let it sit overnight. I did discover that these boots really were watertight!

Meanwhile, back at the camp, someone took people's maggot-ridden bootlaces and bandanas and such and boiled them to get rid of the maggots. In our cooking pot. We had rice for dinner that night--I didn't have much of an appetite!

My efforts seemed to pay off. I didn't see any maggots in the boots the next day. I did wear my dark blue hiking socks, figuring it would be easier to see maggots crawling out of the boots that way. Earlier in the course, I had gouged my shin on a jagged branch and it was looking a little infected. I figured that if any maggots did venture upwards then perhaps they would do a little therapeutic wound debridement. I know--gross nursing humor.

Interesting, though I never had maggot boots (or kinky boots either) I did write and entire article on Maggot Therapy. Gross or not it still has application today. You do have to explain to the patient and family why their bandage might move, but hey, the stink of a necrotic wound resolves in a day or so and you cannot get better microsurgeons than maggots! You used to have to order them from California, and of course they got them to you by flying them - always cracked me up and kept the humor buzzing. After all why shouldn't they "Help Me, Help Me!" (OK, here it comes, I'm ready.....)

Interesting! My uncle Vernon, who was chief of infectious disease at Baylor Medical, and at the NIH at one point in his career, (heading up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigations I believe), gave a talk at the History of Medical Society in 1990 where he told various stories of medical discoveries he experienced during WWII. He was at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and at Utah Beach, treating wounded soldiers. One story involved a soldier who had stepped on a land mine and shattered his foot, and got a battle dressing at the time of the injury. By the time my uncle saw him, they removed the dressing and found "dozens of healthy maggots." He went on: "The wound was clean and healthy. Bone fragments were lying free in the wound. We removed the bone fragments and the maggots manually, following this with irrigation and dusting with powdered sulfadiazine. The patient had little systemic reaction and, clearly, the maggots had performed a successful debridement."

(And that's why I never became a doctor, kids.)

[LadyBird]

A memory popped immediately into my head when I first saw BATHE MAGGOT.


My efforts seemed to pay off. I didn't see any maggots in the boots the next day. I did wear my dark blue hiking socks, figuring it would be easier to see maggots crawling out of the boots that way. Earlier in the course, I had gouged my shin on a jagged branch and it was looking a little infected. I figured that if any maggots did venture upwards then perhaps they would do a little therapeutic wound debridement. I know--gross nursing humor.

Interesting, though I never had maggot boots (or kinky boots either) I did write and entire article on Maggot Therapy. Gross or not it still has application today. You do have to explain to the patient and family why their bandage might move, but hey, the stink of a necrotic wound resolves in a day or so and you cannot get better microsurgeons than maggots! You used to have to order them from California, and of course they got them to you by flying them - always cracked me up and kept the humor buzzing. After all why shouldn't they "Help Me, Help Me!" (OK, here it comes, I'm ready.....)

Do you have a link to your article?

Back in the days when medical companies could actually feed you, I went to a nice dinner/lecture. The topic-shown on slides as we were eating--was the therapeutic use of maggots and leeches.

I missed a chance to work with leeches by a couple of hours. I was caring for a head & neck cancer patient postop. The viability of his flap/skin graft was being compromised by a growing hematoma (collection of blood under the skin--or the flap in this case). They ordered therapeutic leeches and were flying them in from NC. They hadn't arrived by the time my shift ended. Fortunately for the patient, he would probably have been unaware of the leeches since he was on a ventilator and sedated.

[DrTom]

A memory popped immediately into my head when I first saw BATHE MAGGOT.

Back in the late 80's, I decided to celebrate finishing grad school by doing a 23-day Outward Bound Course in North Carolina. It was fairly primitive: no tents just tarps strung overhead, purifying water from streams, carrying everything on our backs, etc. We had several grueling 3-day hikes, 3 days of whitewater canoeing, 3 days of solo, and 3 days of rock climbing. The rock climbing was the start of my misadventure.

For rock climbing, we wore tennis shoes. So I peeled off my wool socks, stuffed them into my hiking boots, and forgot about them. When it was time to hike back to our base camp 3 days later, I pulled out my socks and noticed that they were "moving". As were the interior of my boots. They were covered with maggots--teeming with maggots! The flies had been busy while we were climbing rockfaces. Other people had maggots as well (bootlaces, bandanas, socks) but no one else had them in their boots. I got an empty plastic garbage bag for my boots, tied that to my backpack, and hiked back to camp in my tennis shoes. But that wasn't sustainable because we had another 3-day hike starting the next day.

Fortunately, there was a well with a pump at base camp. So I bathed the heck out of those maggots! I filled the boots with water and dumped them out--and repeated that many times. I scrubbed away with my bandana. And finally (in what was probably a small ethical lapse), I took the bleach from the first aid kit and mixed that with water, poured it into my boots and let it sit overnight. I did discover that these boots really were watertight!

Meanwhile, back at the camp, someone took people's maggot-ridden bootlaces and bandanas and such and boiled them to get rid of the maggots. In our cooking pot. We had rice for dinner that night--I didn't have much of an appetite!

My efforts seemed to pay off. I didn't see any maggots in the boots the next day. I did wear my dark blue hiking socks, figuring it would be easier to see maggots crawling out of the boots that way. Earlier in the course, I had gouged my shin on a jagged branch and it was looking a little infected. I figured that if any maggots did venture upwards then perhaps they would do a little therapeutic wound debridement. I know--gross nursing humor.

Interesting, though I never had maggot boots (or kinky boots either) I did write and entire article on Maggot Therapy. Gross or not it still has application today. You do have to explain to the patient and family why their bandage might move, but hey, the stink of a necrotic wound resolves in a day or so and you cannot get better microsurgeons than maggots! You used to have to order them from California, and of course they got them to you by flying them - always cracked me up and kept the humor buzzing. After all why shouldn't they "Help Me, Help Me!" (OK, here it comes, I'm ready.....)

Interesting! My uncle Vernon, who was chief of infectious disease at Baylor Medical, and at the NIH at one point in his career, (heading up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigations I believe), gave a talk at the History of Medical Society in 1990 where he told various stories of medical discoveries he experienced during WWII. He was at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and at Utah Beach, treating wounded soldiers. One story involved a soldier who had stepped on a land mine and shattered his foot, and got a battle dressing at the time of the injury. By the time my uncle saw him, they removed the dressing and found "dozens of healthy maggots." He went on: "The wound was clean and healthy. Bone fragments were lying free in the wound. We removed the bone fragments and the maggots manually, following this with irrigation and dusting with powdered sulfadiazine. The patient had little systemic reaction and, clearly, the maggots had performed a successful debridement."

(And that's why I never became a doctor, kids.)

Well the history of “medical maggots” goes back even further than that. During the Civil War many rebel troops were sent to the prison in Elmira, NY. They had bad wounds of course and since they were the “enemy” and there were no Geneva conventions, they were left in their cells to rot while flies covered their festering wounds. At the same time, Union Soldiers were being treated for battle wounds and losing arms and legs to infection. It was only when they shooed the flies from the wounds of the confederates that they saw clean, healing wounds. Turns out that not only do the maggots eat ONLY the dead skin, but their secretions appear to have some stimulatory effect on healing and their movement also seems to assist in blood flow to the areas. I can hear Mother Nature snickering loudly…..

Oh, and flies in wounds....I am sure that any of the health care people on this forum can tell you that is probably one of the lesser gag reflex things they have seen. Humans are pretty, but not when they are broken.

[whimsy]

This puzzle had so many rabbit hole possibilities......... Who knew there was a film called Anal Domain. Knew it was wrong and when I got the right film I kicked myself.

OK -- I'll ask before one of the Toms does ----
Where?

[Bob cruise director]

Interesting, though I never had maggot boots (or kinky boots either) I did write and entire article on Maggot Therapy. Gross or not it still has application today. You do have to explain to the patient and family why their bandage might move, but hey, the stink of a necrotic wound resolves in a day or so and you cannot get better microsurgeons than maggots! You used to have to order them from California, and of course they got them to you by flying them - always cracked me up and kept the humor buzzing. After all why shouldn't they "Help Me, Help Me!" (OK, here it comes, I'm ready.....)

Interesting! My uncle Vernon, who was chief of infectious disease at Baylor Medical, and at the NIH at one point in his career, (heading up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigations I believe), gave a talk at the History of Medical Society in 1990 where he told various stories of medical discoveries he experienced during WWII. He was at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and at Utah Beach, treating wounded soldiers. One story involved a soldier who had stepped on a land mine and shattered his foot, and got a battle dressing at the time of the injury. By the time my uncle saw him, they removed the dressing and found "dozens of healthy maggots." He went on: "The wound was clean and healthy. Bone fragments were lying free in the wound. We removed the bone fragments and the maggots manually, following this with irrigation and dusting with powdered sulfadiazine. The patient had little systemic reaction and, clearly, the maggots had performed a successful debridement."

(And that's why I never became a doctor, kids.)

Well the history of “medical maggots” goes back even further than that. During the Civil War many rebel troops were sent to the prison in Elmira, NY. They had bad wounds of course and since they were the “enemy” and there were no Geneva conventions, they were left in their cells to rot while flies covered their festering wounds. At the same time, Union Soldiers were being treated for battle wounds and losing arms and legs to infection. It was only when they shooed the flies from the wounds of the confederates that they saw clean, healing wounds. Turns out that not only do the maggots eat ONLY the dead skin, but their secretions appear to have some stimulatory effect on healing and their movement also seems to assist in blood flow to the areas. I can hear Mother Nature snickering loudly…..

Oh, and flies in wounds....I am sure that any of the health care people on this forum can tell you that is probably one of the lesser gag reflex things they have seen. Humans are pretty, but not when they are broken.

Dr Tom
Did you send this our just before dinner for a particular reason?

[Prozach]

Guess who got the mug???!? Another, fairly new, muggle!

I joined here in September and have had a blast with these puzzles. Thanks to everyone who helped me over these months.

Here is my solution on Joe's original spreadsheet. He is the BEST. and it is FREE.

[HunterX]

Interesting, though I never had maggot boots (or kinky boots either) I did write and entire article on Maggot Therapy. Gross or not it still has application today. You do have to explain to the patient and family why their bandage might move, but hey, the stink of a necrotic wound resolves in a day or so and you cannot get better microsurgeons than maggots! You used to have to order them from California, and of course they got them to you by flying them - always cracked me up and kept the humor buzzing. After all why shouldn't they "Help Me, Help Me!" (OK, here it comes, I'm ready.....)

Interesting! My uncle Vernon, who was chief of infectious disease at Baylor Medical, and at the NIH at one point in his career, (heading up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigations I believe), gave a talk at the History of Medical Society in 1990 where he told various stories of medical discoveries he experienced during WWII. He was at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and at Utah Beach, treating wounded soldiers. One story involved a soldier who had stepped on a land mine and shattered his foot, and got a battle dressing at the time of the injury. By the time my uncle saw him, they removed the dressing and found "dozens of healthy maggots." He went on: "The wound was clean and healthy. Bone fragments were lying free in the wound. We removed the bone fragments and the maggots manually, following this with irrigation and dusting with powdered sulfadiazine. The patient had little systemic reaction and, clearly, the maggots had performed a successful debridement."

(And that's why I never became a doctor, kids.)

Well the history of “medical maggots” goes back even further than that. During the Civil War many rebel troops were sent to the prison in Elmira, NY. They had bad wounds of course and since they were the “enemy” and there were no Geneva conventions, they were left in their cells to rot while flies covered their festering wounds. At the same time, Union Soldiers were being treated for battle wounds and losing arms and legs to infection. It was only when they shooed the flies from the wounds of the confederates that they saw clean, healing wounds. Turns out that not only do the maggots eat ONLY the dead skin, but their secretions appear to have some stimulatory effect on healing and their movement also seems to assist in blood flow to the areas. I can hear Mother Nature snickering loudly…..

Oh, and flies in wounds....I am sure that any of the health care people on this forum can tell you that is probably one of the lesser gag reflex things they have seen. Humans are pretty, but not when they are broken.

Oh, I'm sure maggots were right there with leaches in the annals of medical history. Though I'm now reminded of an episode of Rowan Atkinson's "Blackadder."

But maybe we should just get back to groan-inducing puns. ("Honey? I'm not sure I'm going to want to have any dinner tonight...")

[DrTom]

Interesting! My uncle Vernon, who was chief of infectious disease at Baylor Medical, and at the NIH at one point in his career, (heading up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigations I believe), gave a talk at the History of Medical Society in 1990 where he told various stories of medical discoveries he experienced during WWII. He was at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and at Utah Beach, treating wounded soldiers. One story involved a soldier who had stepped on a land mine and shattered his foot, and got a battle dressing at the time of the injury. By the time my uncle saw him, they removed the dressing and found "dozens of healthy maggots." He went on: "The wound was clean and healthy. Bone fragments were lying free in the wound. We removed the bone fragments and the maggots manually, following this with irrigation and dusting with powdered sulfadiazine. The patient had little systemic reaction and, clearly, the maggots had performed a successful debridement."

(And that's why I never became a doctor, kids.)

Well the history of “medical maggots” goes back even further than that. During the Civil War many rebel troops were sent to the prison in Elmira, NY. They had bad wounds of course and since they were the “enemy” and there were no Geneva conventions, they were left in their cells to rot while flies covered their festering wounds. At the same time, Union Soldiers were being treated for battle wounds and losing arms and legs to infection. It was only when they shooed the flies from the wounds of the confederates that they saw clean, healing wounds. Turns out that not only do the maggots eat ONLY the dead skin, but their secretions appear to have some stimulatory effect on healing and their movement also seems to assist in blood flow to the areas. I can hear Mother Nature snickering loudly…..

Oh, and flies in wounds....I am sure that any of the health care people on this forum can tell you that is probably one of the lesser gag reflex things they have seen. Humans are pretty, but not when they are broken.

Dr Tom
Did you send this our just before dinner for a particular reason?

Oops - my bad. I guess I do not always have the same reaction to gross stuff. I don't know if that is because of what I do now or the fact that I was a plumber in the US Navy. Either way weak stomachs need not apply.

[RDaleHall]

Guess who got the mug???!? Another, fairly new, muggle!

I joined here in September and have had a blast with these puzzles. Thanks to everyone who helped me over these months.

Great to hear this. And hopefully a Buckeye fan as well.

I have quoted A BUG'S LIFE whenever I come up with some crazy idea I think will elegantly solve a problem...."BUT THE BIRD WILL WORK!!!"

[DrTom]

A memory popped immediately into my head when I first saw BATHE MAGGOT.


My efforts seemed to pay off. I didn't see any maggots in the boots the next day. I did wear my dark blue hiking socks, figuring it would be easier to see maggots crawling out of the boots that way. Earlier in the course, I had gouged my shin on a jagged branch and it was looking a little infected. I figured that if any maggots did venture upwards then perhaps they would do a little therapeutic wound debridement. I know--gross nursing humor.

Interesting, though I never had maggot boots (or kinky boots either) I did write and entire article on Maggot Therapy. Gross or not it still has application today. You do have to explain to the patient and family why their bandage might move, but hey, the stink of a necrotic wound resolves in a day or so and you cannot get better microsurgeons than maggots! You used to have to order them from California, and of course they got them to you by flying them - always cracked me up and kept the humor buzzing. After all why shouldn't they "Help Me, Help Me!" (OK, here it comes, I'm ready.....)

Do you have a link to your article?

Back in the days when medical companies could actually feed you, I went to a nice dinner/lecture. The topic-shown on slides as we were eating--was the therapeutic use of maggots and leeches.

I missed a chance to work with leeches by a couple of hours. I was caring for a head & neck cancer patient postop. The viability of his flap/skin graft was being compromised by a growing hematoma (collection of blood under the skin--or the flap in this case). They ordered therapeutic leeches and were flying them in from NC. They hadn't arrived by the time my shift ended. Fortunately for the patient, he would probably have been unaware of the leeches since he was on a ventilator and sedated.

OK, this has been the most frustrating response I have ever posted. I do not use the “Keep me signed in” thing anymore since I had an instance where someone PMed me because it looked like I was online and I think felt I ignored them.

The downside of not doing that means that your connection will time put and anything, regardless how long and considered just POOF disappears when you try to post. SO this is actually the THIRD time I have written this and each time it gets shorter – hmm maybe that is the way to do it after all?

At any rate, here is my answer and just to insure nobody’s stomach is set on edge I’ll post this as a SUPPER

I am afraid that article is absolutely ancient by reference standards. It was from 1998 and was in a journal that I was a section editor for. The Section was New and/or Unusual Uses and focused on the odd (wow, there’s a surprise!)

At any rate I doubt that it is available and I do not have, to my knowledge, any PDF copies. However, there are references available on the web and you can find all kinds of information in Pub Med (the Government run medical reference database on the web). One article I found rather easily was from Malaysia (developing countries often have a bigger problem with untreated wounds of course) from 2020:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7504313/

You can also go online and type in Ronald Sherman, who si probably the Father of maggot therapy in the US (a title I am sure her reveres!) and he was one of the early proponents. There is enough information on the web that you could spend a whole day curled up in your chair with a bottle (blue bottle of course) of something and fly right through it.

We still use leeches, mainly for pediatric patients but also as you describe, for making sure wounds or surgeries that might be complicated by clots or pressure from build up of blood are progressing nicely. It is always a lot of fun, when the leeches are no longer needed for the patient (since you really cannot keep them very long) to gross out a student or two by dipping your hand in the “leech motel” an bringing one out for a look. We have to sacrifice them anyway (the leeches not the students) so why not a last meal.

Oh, and speaking of meals…yes back in the good old days I attended a “Treatment of Decubitus Ulcers” at a very nice Italian restaurant. Red sauce, cheese and pasta did not seem to be very stimulating of appetite that evening….

[Meg]

Some of the topics on this forum...........are really interesting! Maggots are your friends! Thanks for such informative stories. This was much more interesting than rock bands I saw when I was in college.

[ReB]

Somehow I didn't hit submit on Sunday after I made it to shore through the choppy surf. I intuited that the five theme entries connected to movies of that year, but the breakthrough came when I recognized MelBOURNE and was able to derive from Google The Borne Ultimatum, which tied up the loose ends in the mechanism. Then it was just a matter of laboriously testing out on Google various first two words with the year to figure out the other movie titles, three of which I had never heard of. First letters of the third words gave ABUGS, of course, which quickly generated the answer.

(MGWCC was even more brutal, but got through to the answer today finally).

[hcbirker]

Interesting, though I never had maggot boots (or kinky boots either) I did write and entire article on Maggot Therapy. Gross or not it still has application today. You do have to explain to the patient and family why their bandage might move, but hey, the stink of a necrotic wound resolves in a day or so and you cannot get better microsurgeons than maggots! You used to have to order them from California, and of course they got them to you by flying them - always cracked me up and kept the humor buzzing. After all why shouldn't they "Help Me, Help Me!" (OK, here it comes, I'm ready.....)

Interesting! My uncle Vernon, who was chief of infectious disease at Baylor Medical, and at the NIH at one point in his career, (heading up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigations I believe), gave a talk at the History of Medical Society in 1990 where he told various stories of medical discoveries he experienced during WWII. He was at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and at Utah Beach, treating wounded soldiers. One story involved a soldier who had stepped on a land mine and shattered his foot, and got a battle dressing at the time of the injury. By the time my uncle saw him, they removed the dressing and found "dozens of healthy maggots." He went on: "The wound was clean and healthy. Bone fragments were lying free in the wound. We removed the bone fragments and the maggots manually, following this with irrigation and dusting with powdered sulfadiazine. The patient had little systemic reaction and, clearly, the maggots had performed a successful debridement."

(And that's why I never became a doctor, kids.)

Well the history of “medical maggots” goes back even further than that. During the Civil War many rebel troops were sent to the prison in Elmira, NY. They had bad wounds of course and since they were the “enemy” and there were no Geneva conventions, they were left in their cells to rot while flies covered their festering wounds. At the same time, Union Soldiers were being treated for battle wounds and losing arms and legs to infection. It was only when they shooed the flies from the wounds of the confederates that they saw clean, healing wounds. Turns out that not only do the maggots eat ONLY the dead skin, but their secretions appear to have some stimulatory effect on healing and their movement also seems to assist in blood flow to the areas. I can hear Mother Nature snickering loudly…..

Oh, and flies in wounds....I am sure that any of the health care people on this forum can tell you that is probably one of the lesser gag reflex things they have seen. Humans are pretty, but not when they are broken.

Sounds like maggots are like Condors and Vultures. They are immune to the bacteria they ingest. Their stomach acids are incredibly strong.

[LadyBird]

Interesting! My uncle Vernon, who was chief of infectious disease at Baylor Medical, and at the NIH at one point in his career, (heading up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigations I believe), gave a talk at the History of Medical Society in 1990 where he told various stories of medical discoveries he experienced during WWII. He was at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and at Utah Beach, treating wounded soldiers. One story involved a soldier who had stepped on a land mine and shattered his foot, and got a battle dressing at the time of the injury. By the time my uncle saw him, they removed the dressing and found "dozens of healthy maggots." He went on: "The wound was clean and healthy. Bone fragments were lying free in the wound. We removed the bone fragments and the maggots manually, following this with irrigation and dusting with powdered sulfadiazine. The patient had little systemic reaction and, clearly, the maggots had performed a successful debridement."

(And that's why I never became a doctor, kids.)

Well the history of “medical maggots” goes back even further than that. During the Civil War many rebel troops were sent to the prison in Elmira, NY. They had bad wounds of course and since they were the “enemy” and there were no Geneva conventions, they were left in their cells to rot while flies covered their festering wounds. At the same time, Union Soldiers were being treated for battle wounds and losing arms and legs to infection. It was only when they shooed the flies from the wounds of the confederates that they saw clean, healing wounds. Turns out that not only do the maggots eat ONLY the dead skin, but their secretions appear to have some stimulatory effect on healing and their movement also seems to assist in blood flow to the areas. I can hear Mother Nature snickering loudly…..

Oh, and flies in wounds....I am sure that any of the health care people on this forum can tell you that is probably one of the lesser gag reflex things they have seen. Humans are pretty, but not when they are broken.

Sounds like maggots are like Condors and Vultures. They are immune to the bacteria they ingest. Their stomach acids are incredibly strong.

Pigeons are often called "rats with wings". So, perhaps, vultures and condors are "maggots with wings". Although maggots eventually get their wings when they become flies. Or is it when a bell rings?

[DrTom]

Well the history of “medical maggots” goes back even further than that. During the Civil War many rebel troops were sent to the prison in Elmira, NY. They had bad wounds of course and since they were the “enemy” and there were no Geneva conventions, they were left in their cells to rot while flies covered their festering wounds. At the same time, Union Soldiers were being treated for battle wounds and losing arms and legs to infection. It was only when they shooed the flies from the wounds of the confederates that they saw clean, healing wounds. Turns out that not only do the maggots eat ONLY the dead skin, but their secretions appear to have some stimulatory effect on healing and their movement also seems to assist in blood flow to the areas. I can hear Mother Nature snickering loudly…..

Oh, and flies in wounds....I am sure that any of the health care people on this forum can tell you that is probably one of the lesser gag reflex things they have seen. Humans are pretty, but not when they are broken.

Sounds like maggots are like Condors and Vultures. They are immune to the bacteria they ingest. Their stomach acids are incredibly strong.

Pigeons are often called "rats with wings". So, perhaps, vultures and condors are "maggots with wings". Although maggots eventually get their wings when they become flies. Or is it when a bell rings?

Since they seem to flock to wounds we can only assume they are enjoying themselves, I believe that gave rise to the famous saying, "flies' times when they are having fun"

[Dplass]

The swim of shame. Back to boat for me. Did anyone else submit Bambi? I thought answer would end in “I” then the iambic pentameter thing. Female deer in there too etc etc.but it never completely gelled. Love the solution. Good work to all you code crackers

BAMBI was going to be my hail-Mary. 5 themers, 5 letters, a "well-known animated movie." I'd say BAMBI and SHREK (also, hey, 5 letters. Coincidence?) are MUCH more well-known than was A Bug's Life.

[minimuggle]

This puzzle had so many rabbit hole possibilities......... Who knew there was a film called Anal Domain. Knew it was wrong and when I got the right film I kicked myself.

OK -- I'll ask before one of the Toms does ----
Where?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159971/

[mheberlingx100]

The swim of shame. Back to boat for me. Did anyone else submit Bambi? I thought answer would end in “I” then the iambic pentameter thing. Female deer in there too etc etc.but it never completely gelled. Love the solution. Good work to all you code crackers

BAMBI was going to be my hail-Mary. 5 themers, 5 letters, a "well-known animated movie." I'd say BAMBI and SHREK (also, hey, 5 letters. Coincidence?) are MUCH more well-known than was A Bug's Life.

I think we should all be thankful given the clue structure that the meta answer wasn’t “Fritz the Cat”.