Mum has live spider in ear
A PORTHCAWL mum complaining of a pain in her head was left horrified when doctors pulled a live spider from her ear.
Victoria Price thought she might have suffered a perforated eardrum, but it turned out to be something far more terrifying.
A WOMAN complaining of a pain in her head was left horrified when doctors pulled a live spider from her ear.
Victoria Price had just returned home from a quick dip in the sea when she began suffering horrendous pains.
The Porthcawl mum thought she might have suffered an infection or perforated eardrum, but it turned out to be something far more terrifying.
After a visit to accident and emergency, medics discovered a “chunky” spider had crawled into her ear and made itself a home.
South Wales Police IT trainer Victoria had been swimming off Newton Beach when the furry spider is thought to have nestled itself inside her head.
“I got out of the shower [when I got home] and the pain in my ear was just incredible,” said Victoria, a member of Newton Lifeguard Club.
“I was Irish dancing around the bathroom. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I assumed I had trapped water or I’d perforated an eardrum or something. The first thing I did was reach for cotton wool, because you think if it’s water that will absorb it.
“As soon as I put the cotton wool in it was quite a bit better but throughout the night it came and went. I didn’t sleep very much.”
Victoria went to work the next day but the fluctuating pain continued and she felt a gurgling sensation as though she had water in her ear.
“I was convinced it would go pop and the water would drain out,” she said. That night the family went out for a meal. Afterwards, before going to bed, Victoria asked her husband Huw to check in her ear for any sign of infection. His reaction was a shocked: “There’s something alive in there!”
After taking their eightyear-old daughter Bethan to her grandparents, the couple headed straight for Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.
Victoria said: “We didn’t have to wait long.
“I saw the triage nurse and told her, ‘there’s something alive in there, apparently.’
“She took the cotton wool out, shone in the light and said ‘okay’ and then went off to find someone who would take it out.”
Emergency nurse practitioner at the hospital Sarah Gaze had to overcome her own squeamishness while she evicted Victoria’s unwanted wriggling tenant using forceps.
Sarah said: “It was very straightforward. The spider was visible in Victoria’s inner ear and it came out quite easily. But it was alive and very wriggly. It was quite big too. It must have been twice as big as it first looked.
“Victoria was very brave – braver than me. I didn’t find it a pleasant experience at all but it was my job so I had to overcome my fear.”
Victoria, who has no problem with spiders, insisted it was Sarah who was brave. And she has her own theory as to how the arachnid got in her ear in the first place.
“When I went to get changed in the cabin and put my hoodie on, the spider must have been in the hood and got into my hair, she said. “When I went into the shower the first thing it wanted to find somewhere warm and dry so it went into my ear.
“I think the pain must have been him dancing on my eardrum and the gurgling was him moving around. With the cotton wool in, it was dark so he’d calmed down and now and then he tried to escape by running around, and that was the pain.”
Fortunately an examination showed the spider had not caused any problems.
Victoria said: “There was no further damage – or any eggs laid, as everyone keeps asking me.”