An elderly woman allegedly left to rot in bed by her daughter was spared death — by hundreds of maggots EATING her dead flesh, it has been claimed.
The 70-year-old mum of Sherrie Morton, 46, was found stuck to her soiled, bug-covered sheets as maggots crawled into an open wound on her leg.
Checking on the woman the day she was rescued, a friend described the scene as like something from a “horror movie" and reported seeing "hundreds of maggots" covering the pensioner's exposed sores.
The woman is said to have complained that she felt her legs were “burning".
The friend claimed to have seen maggots crawling into the woman's wound four days before she was rescued by cops in the US.
Doctors believe the maggots may have stopped the woman from dying by eating the flesh and slowing down the rate of infection.
Police were called to the home in Auburn, Washington State by Ms Morton only after a friend reportedly threatened to phone them instead.
Officers arriving at the scene reported large piles of rubbish in the home and the smell of faeces and rotting flesh.
Firefighters and doctors in hazardous material suits pulled the 29-stone-woman from her room and rushed her to hospital where she was placed in a critical condition.
Medical staff removed hundreds of maggots from her infected body following the rescue.
Ms Morton told Seattle police she had lived in the home with her mother for 13 years and that the injury was only a few days' old.
She told officers she had noticed the smell of rotting flesh and claimed to have called the police after noticing the maggots.
In hospital her mother is said to have told staff her care at home was fine and did not understand being covered in maggots was a problem.
Ms Morton, who maintains the care of her mother was adequate, has been charged with second-degree criminal mistreatment of a dependent person and jailed with a bail of £100,000.
- Sun
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