Maggots kept rotting woman alive

There are few things grosser than maggots, but at least they serve a purpose by eating other gross things. In Auburn Washington, a woman left her elderly mother to literally rot after she had injured her leg. After what authorities suspect was at least a month of going without treatment, the leg wound was septic, gangrenous and attracting flies and other bugs.

"The maggots may have helped keep (the woman) alive due to the fact that they were eating the rotting skin that was infected and helping to slow the infection," King County Sheriff's Det. Marylisa Priebe-Olson said in court papers, recounting a statement from a paramedic.

Firefighters and medics dressed in hazardous-material suits pulled the woman from her home and transported her to Valley Medical Center, where she was in critical condition. Medical staff removed hundreds of maggots from her body in the days following her rescue.

Still, the woman claimed to have been well cared for in her home, Priebe-Olson told the court.

"(She) said in the hospital that her care at home was fine," the detective told the court. "However, (she) did not understand that maggots eating her flesh was not good care."

All of nature's creatures are wonderful and helpful. Maggots are just like those birds that helped Snow White get dressed! The woman's daughter and "caretaker" has been charged with second-degree criminal mistreatment of a dependent person. [Seattlepi]