The Uninvited Guest: Woman Discovers Three-Inch Leech Living in Her Nose After Southeast Asia Trip

Daniela Liverani, a 24-year-old backpacker from Scotland, was in for a shocking discovery after returning from a trip to Southeast Asia. After experiencing persistent nosebleeds and a strange sensation in her nostril for nearly a month, Daniela was horrified to learn that the culprit was not congealed blood from a motorbike accident, but a three-inch-long leech that had been living inside her nose.

The bizarre ordeal began when Daniela had a motorbike crash during her travels, after which she noticed frequent nosebleeds. Believing that she had merely burst a blood vessel from the accident, she thought nothing of it. But once home in Edinburgh, the bleeding stopped, and something even more unsettling started happening—something began sticking out of her nose.

“I tried to blow him out and grab him,” Daniela explained, thinking it was dried blood. But no matter how hard she tried, the mysterious lump would retreat back up her nostril. Things escalated when, during a shower, the creature stretched out as far as her bottom lip. It was then that Daniela realized with horror what was happening: there was an animal inside her nose.

Panicking, she and her friend Jenny called NHS 24, who advised her to get to the hospital immediately. Once at the A&E, Daniela was rushed into a treatment room where a doctor and nurse used forceps, tweezers, and a torch to inspect the uninvited guest in her nose.

“It was agony,” Daniela recounted. “Whenever the doctor grabbed him, I could feel the leech tugging at the inside of my nose.” After a painful 30-minute procedure, the leech was finally removed. To Daniela’s shock, the creature was as long as her forefinger and as fat as her thumb. It had been feeding on her blood for weeks, nestled comfortably inside her nostril.

Despite the horror, Daniela and her friend decided to give the leech a name—”Mr. Curly”—due to the way it had curled up in her nostril. While relieved to be free of the creature, Daniela couldn’t help but think of the chilling possibility that, had it not been removed, the leech could have worked its way even further up, possibly into her brain.

Experts believe Daniela may have picked up the leech while swimming or drinking water during her travels in Vietnam. Mark Siddal, a leech expert from the American Museum of Natural History, noted that it’s surprisingly common for people not to feel these creatures when they enter the body.

In the end, Daniela’s strange and disturbing experience serves as a reminder that travel can sometimes bring home more than just memories—sometimes, it comes with a few uninvited guests.