# Snopes? Doctors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2003, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-doctors/167522 "2003-04-09T11:56:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-doctors/167522/1 "2003-04-09T11:56:26Z")
Alright this is absolutely disgusting, but I’m curious about it… I was checking snopes the other day and I found http://66.165.133.65/photos/maggots.asp Snopes says it’s a true picture and all, but they don’t give a site so I’m not sure I believe them. How is it possible that this guy would have lived long enough for the maggots to hatch? Snope’s says the following: > [@](#): > > Although the explanations quoted above are erroneous, these images are in fact real and undoctored, and they are indeed photographs taken of a patient whose brain surface was exposed and crawling with insects. The pictures date from October 2002, and they are photographs of a man in his 70s who was suffering from an unusual form of cancer which had eaten away at the upper portion of his skull and scalp but who had not sought any medical treatment because the condition was not causing him pain. The man was brought to the trauma center at Stanford University Hospital (where the photographs shown here were taken) by San Mateo County paramedics who had been summoned to the scene after the man was involved in a minor automobile accident and who found him in his car in the condition pictured. I don’t know, I’m just in a state of “I don’t believe this” and I’m wondering if any doctors out there can confirm if it’s possible… ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-doctors/167522/2 "2003-04-09T11:59:31Z")
BTW-Barfy smile? This picture is REALLY gross… So you all have been warned… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-doctors/167522/3 "2003-04-09T11:59:51Z")
Well, the brain itself has no sensory nerves. You could have an insect (or twenty) crawling on your brain and not feel a thing. However, your brain is covered in the _dura mater_ (Latin: tough mother), which _does_ feel pain (as any migraine sufferer knows). Getting though the _dura mater_ is, well, tough, and you _would_ feel it unless something had killed the nerves beforehand. Something like cancer, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-doctors/167522/4 "2003-04-09T12:08:41Z")
BTW, your link is messed up; it tried to take me to **[http://this](http://this)./** (probably not a bad thing, though). ---
**Author:** ![phraser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e4f/32.png) [@phraser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phraser)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-doctors/167522/5 "2003-04-09T12:15:30Z")
Cutaneous mydriasis (larvae in the skin) is a common condition in humans and animals. There is a celebrated photo of an infestation of old world screw-worm fly on the face of a man that has taken out both his eyes, and made its way into his brain. I unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, cos it’s really gross) can’t find an electronic copy. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-doctors/167522/6 "2003-04-09T13:08:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > \*\*BTW, your link is messed up; it tried to take me to **[http://this](http://this)./** > > (probably not a bad thing, though). \*\* I swear, it’s the back and forth between other MBs… Here’s the link: [Snopes](http://66.165.133.65/photos/maggots.asp) ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-doctors/167522/7 "2003-04-09T17:52:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Meatros \* > \*\*BTW-Barfy smile? > > This picture is REALLY gross… > > So you all have been warned… \*\* Why do I open these things? ☹