Monsters Inside Me

These killers lie dormant, waiting for the right time to strike. Eleven-month-old Garrett Richardson ingests the eggs of a worm, and within days the creature travels to his brain and goes about feeding on its tissue. A Vietnam veteran survived the enemy attacks on the front lines, but back at home — unknown to him — a killer is stealthily working its way through his body, laying waste to his organs and lymph system. By the time the medical evidence reveals the source many years later, the killer is long gone. And John Figge and many of his family members live for six years with unwanted hitchhikers from Africa traveling around in their bodies. Only when one of these creatures begins to attack Johns brain are they discovered. Can the family get rid of these deadly parasites before the damage is critical? These are all stealthy predators that get inside their hosts, yet work on very different timetables. Dangerous and often hard to detect, this is the story of the war on sleeper cell parasites.

Perfecting the art of reproduction have made parasites the most successful life form on the planet. There are some who are violent, manipulative and have taken sex to the extreme. These parasites are sex maniacs. A New Jersey woman finds her apartment infested with one of the most ubiquitous parasites on earth — bed bugs. Part of the reason for their success is the males aggressive approach to sex, a method known as "traumatic insemination." A cyclist from Colorado discovers that the insect bites on his head are from botflies. In Oklahoma, a chemical sprayers cough turns out to be the result of parasitic worms that multiply in the human lung.

Nature is a war zone and parasites are the ultimate fighters. They are hungry, they are ruthless and they dont play by the rules. Parasites have evolved countless ways of hijacking their hosts bodies: some steal food from inside the gut, others lurk in the blood sapping their hosts nutrients and some even target their hosts brain. These are some of the most horrific cases of parasitic infection in the United States. In Virginia a vicious creature is on the rampage, its next victim is an innocent child. In Michigan a brutal killer has invaded a travelers blood, and a summers day at a Florida lake turns into a nightmare when a ruthless monster attacks a young boys brain.

A fit and active dance instructor is suddenly stopped in her tracks by unbearable abdominal pain and vomiting, and a mysterious mass in her colon is revealed to have decaying worms. A middle-aged banker gets seizures from a parasite he picked up from traveling to his home country, Haiti. A scientist finds worms from Africa that threaten to damage his sight living in his skin and eyes.

A nine-year-old hockey player comes down with encephalitis from the Acanthamoeba, which causes him to lose his concentration and balance, almost killing him. A computer programmer gets severe malaria from the Plasmodium parasite that makes him lose control of his mind and post-malarial neurological symptoms two weeks after an apparent recovery. A marathon runner deals with Leishmaniasis, which causes his spleen to swell.

A cat scratch leads to a horrifying result for a veterinary volunteer; strange liquid oozes from a college students arm.

Daily stomach cramps reveal some of the most common parasites in nature.

A middle-aged man who has been caring for his ailing mother gets Babesiosis from walking barefoot to the mailbox. Since he lost his spleen from cancer, he gets severe diarrhea, in addition to fever, fatigue, and night sweats. An active, busy middle-aged woman experiences stomach cramps, explosive diarrhea, lightheadedness, and blurred vision from the Toxocara parasite, which she probably got from contaminated food. An older mother of five children deals with nausea, loss of appetite, muscle spasms, and vomiting from the Strongyloides worm, which she may have picked up from being in contact with infected soil. Because of steroids she took for her breathing problems, her body became more vulnerable to the parasite.

A toddler starts worrying her parents when she loses her appetite for the foods she normally eats, but starts craving salt and even cat food. After developing a rash, her parents find out that she has been infected by the Toxocara canis parasite. A middle-aged executive of a company starts to feel pain in his abdomen, not knowing that he has been infected by a bacteria called ESBL E. coli. A married couple start to feel flu-like symptoms, which turns out theyve been infected by the plague bacterium. However, the husbands condition is much worse, and even has to get his calves amputated.

A man suddenly grows a pimple that seems minor at first, but eventually oozes and makes his face swollen. A young man that works at a homeless shelter suddenly starts to feel a sharp pain in his back. At first is seems like a simple back injury, but it eventually gets so sharp it spreads to arms and legs. A school-aged boy starts to get a headache after a visit to a friends house. It doesnt seem too bad at first, but he eventually develops a fever and lays unconscious. It later turns out he is suffering from a condition called Valley Fever.

A teenage girl has been enjoying her life of gymnastics and nature, when she suddenly receives a scratch on her hand. The problem seems minor, but the scratch fails to heal and becomes several lesions, which also spread to her eyes. The infection appears to be caused by the MRSA bacteria, but it turns out that it is actually caused by Mycobacterium marinum. A middle-aged man suddenly feels as if hes choking and coughs hard. Initially, it appears to be a case of pneumonia, but after a surgery to fix his spine, he develops stabbing pain in his throat. The coughing returns, and it turns out that he did, indeed, swallow a can tab. A young man suddenly starts complaining of itchiness in his body. He develops a headache, nausea, body aches, and an inability to urinate. Tests show that the man has developed meningitis from rat lungworm disease.

A young mother expecting her second child suddenly comes down with a stuffy nose and itchy throat. They appear to be typical flu symptoms, but she still feels feverish and soon starts coughing. Her breathing deteriorates to the point where she cant breathe on her own anymore. It turns out that the young woman has developed an Acinetobacter infection. An energetic college student has been healthy, until she suddenly feels like she cant get enough oxygen and starts wheezing. She develops bouts of coughing so bad that she even coughs up worms. The student learns that she has been infected by the Ascaris worm the whole time. A teenage girl living in the countryside suddenly gets headaches. At first, it appears to be from stress, but she soon becomes irritable and develops triple vision. Worse, she even collapses and experiences a seizure. Only when its too late that it becomes clear that the teenager has had rabies.

A little girls health begins to deteriorate when she suddenly comes down with a fever. She then develops reddish spots on her body, stops breathing on her own, and even suffers kidney and liver failure. A spinal tap reveals that the little girl has meningococcal disease. Unfortunately, the disease causes too much damage that the doctors have to amputate her left arm. A home contractor has been relatively healthy, until he suddenly begins to gain weight in his abdominal area, which turns out to be caused by a large tumor. After removal of the tumor, the man feels excruciating pain that spreads from his abdomen to his lower back and chest. Initially, it appears to be part of his recovery process, but an x-ray shows that a retractor has been left in his body after the surgery. 7-year old Kyle Lewiss life turns into a living nightmare when he starts complaining of headaches, and starts vomiting.

A 7-year-old girl contracts the bubonic plague and suffers a 107 fever, vomiting, painful buboes, and seizures; a yoga instructor finds out that what she thought was influenza is actually necrotizing fasciitis caused by Streptococcus intermedius and Peptostreptococcus; a state wrestling champion contracts angiostrongyliasis.

A newly engaged Illinois man mysteriously collapses and suffers organ failure and gangrene from Legionnaires disease. His fiance gazes in horror as he must choose between life and limb; a perky animal-loving eight-year-old girl survives rabies – a disease with a 99% fatality rate; a college freshmen almost goes blind from a bout of Acanthamoeba keratitis.

A small-town boys summer fun is cut short by a life-threatening Neisseria meningitidis infection. An oil rig worker and daredevil experiences sensitivity to light, muscle pain and horrifying hallucinations from Trichinella spiralis after eating bear meat. A former beauty queen suffers an extreme case of asthma for one year from a nasal packing contaminated with Aspergillus niger fungi.

A teenager caught in the 2011 Joplin tornado in Missouri is recovering in the hospital when he suddenly suffers from a life-threatening case of zygomycosis. A couple traveling who visited South Africa get maggots under their skin; a man suffers coughing fits, severe headaches, vertigo, and violent episodes (including chasing his son with a wrench and punching him in the face) before doctors discover the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans has infected his brain.

A special episode with three cases that happened during the holidays – A newlywed woman gets a constant pain in her scalp from botfly larvae; a Virginia man gets sharp back pains and develops a hole in his heart from Streptococcus viridans; a female business consultant and part-time photographer gets valley fever.

A teenage girl begins having strange mood swings from anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis; an elderly mother gets chills, hand numbness, wrist pain, and oozing blisters from Vibrio vulnificus she got from being pricked by a crab while making a stew; an athletic military veteran from the Afghan war competing in reality shows returns home from Fiji feeling hotness, a pinching sensation in her arms and toes, and hallucinations from rat lungworm she got from eating a slug in a reality show in the jungle

A 23-year-old athlete/construction worker suffers multiple grand mal seizures and high fevers from eastern equine encephalitis; a hard-edged tough guy suffers severe stomach pains and loss of appetite from accidentally swallowing a grill bristle; a 17-year-old cheerleader who recently got her drivers license suffers a swollen, itchy eye and excruciating eye pains from Acanthamoeba keratitis she got from contact lenses.

A Canadian science-lover and traveler suffers a painful lesion caused by botfly larvae; a video game programmer gets suffers from constant vomiting and coughing. When doctors find a large mass in his chest, it is discovered that he has histoplasmosis, which was contracted from inhaling bat droppings in a cave; a 15-year-old girl gets an extremely sore throat, a headache, nausea, and body pains from Lemierres syndrome.

The second episode of the series to be Christmas-themed – a saleswoman gets a stabbing headaches and a constant burning sensation in her right eye from a Dirofilaria immitis worm that is in her eye; a store manager gets stomach pains, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and even a constantly moving stomach from a surgical sponge being left and forming a hole in his colon; a grandmother working in the forest service gets abdomen pains, fatigue, and pneumonia from Strongyloides stercoralis worms invading her intestines.

A Canadian 13-month-old toddler gets breathing difficulties and mild vomiting from accidentally swallowing a button battery (for what the doctors originally thought was a coin); a college freshwoman gets migraines, nausea, on-and-off blindness, hallucination-like partial seizures, repulsive taste and two lesions in her brain from infection with Taenia solium; in 2008, a 6-year-old girl gets a headache, a rash, high fevers, and dies from Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

A 4-year-old boy literally drowns in his own mucus, being a victim of an outbreak of the Enterovirus D68 virus; a 7-year old scrapes his knee on a rock at the beach, but when his father puts a liquid bandage on it, it causes it to swell the size of an orange – then, his mother squeezes the wound and finds a sea snail (Littorina scutulata) inside; a college student experiences loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, jaundice, and repetitive nightmares that turn into a reality from getting infected with malaria caused by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite after returning from a trip to Ghana.

During a fishing vacation, a soccer coach goes into septic shock from Vibrio vulnificus necrotizing fasciitis after banging his ankle on a barnacle; a 7-year-old girl gets facial tics, bouts of anxiety, and turns suicidal after a streptococcal brain infection; a makeup artist gets severe stomach cramps and watery diarrhea from Giardia lamblia.

An 11-month-old boy experiences wheezing and vomiting after swallowing a button battery; a landscaper becomes infected with Paragonimus kellicotti; a female boxer gets a severe headache, a 105 fever, and impaired vision from cat scratch fever caused by Bartonella henselae.

A young college student contracts Acanthamoeba keratitis from sleeping in her contact lenses; an infant becomes temporarily paralyzed and almost dies from accidental ingestion of soil that contained the most deadly toxin known to science, botulinum toxin. A new mother has extreme pain from a piece of gauze that was left inside her abdomen during a C-section.

A 13-year-old boy gets a cut on his leg that nearly leads to amputation when it becomes infected with Staphylococcus aureus, causing necrotizing fasciitis; a couple move into their new home, but over the course of three years, the man suffers a spreading/oozing rash, poor coordination, body aches, breathing difficulties, and weight loss, while his girlfriend suffers memory loss, fatigue, and suicidal depression, both from chronic low grade carbon monoxide poisoning; an 8-year-old girl from Hawaii gets a growing mass in her eye from Toxocara canis.

This episode looks back at three cases from past episodes: a teenage boy with a grill bristle in his intestines (A Deadly Swim); another teenage boy with leprosy (Help! My Son is a Leper); and a teenage girl whose lungs are afflicted with Cryptococcus gattii fungi (My Body Is Rotting).

An Idaho 17-year-old football player is struck with a sore throat, breathing difficulties/lung pain, confusion, kidney failure and even tackles his own mother from Group A streptococcus bacteria infecting his blood; an Illinois mother of three kids develops an itchy eye which leads to face numbness, loss of depth perception and blindness as the result of an Acanthamoeba keratitis infection; a dockmaster develops crippling pain in his hand from a Mycobacterium marinum infection along with pimples on his palm from barnacles growing in his hand.

A Canadian woman suffers a piercing pain in her throat and vomiting from accidentally swallowing a grill bristle (for which she thought was a sprig of rosemary) which got caught in her throat during a barbecue; an Arizona retired firefighter vacationing in Belize develops growing and eventually opening purple bumps on his limbs, lethargy, and hand pain from cutaneous leishmaniasis; a Nebraska 14-year-old girl is struck with swollen lymph nodes in her neck, dizziness, fatigue, blackouts, and body pain from Tularemia.

The shows fourth Christmas-themed episode, and the second episode of the series that looks back at three past cases, including: a baby whose brain was infected with Cytomegalovirus in utero (All I Got For Christmas Is Brain Surgery); a woman whose eye is infected with the worm Dirofilaria immitis (A Holiday in the Hospital); and a man who has a surgical sponge left in his colon (also A Holiday in the Hospital).

A man falls comatose; a college student has a sore throat; and a young womans symptoms confound experts.

An infant falls mysteriously ill; a biology professor becomes an unexpected host; and a family man is brought to the brink.

A young boy has a strange condition; a womans symptoms push her to madness; and a toddler falls into a trance-like state when something begins eating his brain.

A man coughs up blood; a newlywed husband is struck down by a rare disease; and a father struggles with abdominal pain.

A woman is struck down by a dangerous parasite; an infant falls mysterious ill; and a fungus brings a young man to the brink of death.

A man develops a strange growth on his wrist; a nurse finds twig-like pieces in her urine; and a pregnant woman falls ill with flu-like symptoms.