Maggots found in hospital intensive unit

A hospital trust was criticised yesterday after maggots were found crawling on a patient's face in an intensive care unit. Nyree Ellison Anjos was horrified to discover the fly larvae near a feeding tube attached to her mother's face while she was being treated at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Mrs Ellison Anjos's elderly mother, Christine Ellison, died two days later of a separate illness in July this year. Mrs Ellison Anjos, from Robinswood, Gloucester, said she had chosen to speak out so that such an incident could not happen again.

She was unavailable for comment yesterday but told the BBC: "We saw there was a fly flying around there. Everyone was making it go away, even the staff in the hospital. "The next day there was this yellow thing by her tube ... and we could see it was bothering her. I had a close look and could see little maggots moving in there."

A spokeswoman for the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "We would like to offer our sincere apologies to the family of Mrs Ellison for any distress caused by this incident."

The same hospital was criticised in October after one of its treatment rooms had to be fumigated after maggots were found feeding on a discarded sandwich.