When Angela Lyons arrived at the emergency room, she could barely keep a towel pressed to her face as blood streamed from her nose. The medical staff moved quickly, ushering her into an examination room. As she tilted her head back, waiting for answers, she couldn’t have imagined the bizarre cause behind her terrifying symptoms.
Only two weeks earlier, Angela had been on vacation in Vietnam, riding mopeds through busy streets, dancing in nightclubs, tasting exotic dishes, and even swimming in local rivers. It had been the perfect escape from her routine life in Glasgow.
During one of those carefree afternoons, she had taken a tumble from her rented moped after a minor crash. Her head hit the pavement, but thanks to a helmet, she suffered nothing worse than a sore bump. She brushed it off, deciding not to seek medical help. She finished her trip without any further issues — or so she thought.
But once she returned home, the real trouble began. Strange, heavy nosebleeds started to plague her daily life. Worried, she visited her doctor, who blamed the symptoms on the dramatic shift from Vietnam’s tropical humidity to Scotland’s cool, dry climate. He recommended moisturizing her nostrils and reassured her that it would pass.
Instead, it got worse.
Standing in her bathroom days later, Angela had felt a strange pressure deep inside her nostril. Prodding it accidentally triggered a flood of pain and an unstoppable gush of blood, forcing her to rush to the hospital.
At the emergency room, the nurse inspecting her grew silent. Something deep within Angela’s nasal cavity had caught the nurse off guard. Moments later, a doctor was called in.
The diagnosis? Not a head injury, not climate change — but a living parasite.
During one of Angela’s river swims, an opportunistic leech had entered her nasal passage. It had burrowed itself deep inside, feeding unnoticed for days, nestled dangerously close to her brain.
It took a careful, painful extraction to remove the three-inch creature. Fortunately, once it was out, Angela’s symptoms vanished, and she fully recovered — but the experience left her with a travel story few could ever top.