An elderly cancer patient was found with maggots crawling out of his ears shortly before his death in a nursing home.
John Callaghan begged his wife to take him home after spending two weeks at the Bupa Tugun Aged Care facility in Australia’s Gold Coast.
His widow Fay, 83, said she was ‘disgusted’ to find her husband in such a poor condition when she visited him in 2017, reports the Mirror.
He told her: "This is a terrible place it's dreadful, they don't look after you please get me out."
Maggots
Sadly, John died in a nearby hospital just ten days after raising concerns with his family about his treatment.
Mr Callaghan had ear cancer and an existing fungating wound on the left side of his head when he arrived at the facility in October 2017, according to reports.
"He wasn't an easy man to look after, he was in great pain and was battling cancer in his ear, but when I came to visit him maggots were crawling out of his ears," Mrs Callaghan said.
Bupa Australia, which rakes in AUS$475million (£265m) in Australian government funding annually, has apologised to his family over the incident.
A spokesperson for Bupa Australia said: "We’re very sorry this occurred at our Bupa Tugun Australian care home and we gave our sincere apologies to Mr Callaghan and his family at the time.
"Our nurses quickly addressed this issue and Mr Callaghan was then transferred to a local Queensland hospital.
"We’ve since made a number of improvements at the home to prevent this happening again.
"Bupa Tugun is fully compliant with all Australian aged care standards and, in the two years since the incident, it has passed five external audits by the Australian regulator.”
