Monsters Inside Me
| Monsters Inside Me | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Medical |
| Directed by | Kyle Mcgee, Alexis Siggers, Sally Freeman, Ed Hambleton |
| Presented by | Dan Riskin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 46 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Nicola Moody Erin Wanner Dominic Stobart |
| Running time | 45 min. |
| Production company(s) | Optomen Productions |
| Distributor | Animal Planet and Discovery Channel |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Animal Planet |
| Original run | July 1, 2009 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Bugs, Bites & Parasites |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Monsters Inside Me is a television documentary series about parasites that live on or, in many cases, inside the human body. It is filmed in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
Summary
Each episode has dramatizations that show illnesses caused by parasitic infection. Once the parasites have been identified, their life cycles are illustrated. Justin Peed is the narrator, and biologist Dan Riskin, explains how and why each parasite finds its host.[1]
The second season premiered on Wednesday June 9, 2010 and then returned for a third season on October 5, 2012.[2] As of January 7, 2011, Monsters Inside Me was broadcast in Canada by DiscoveryScience.
Episodes
Three seasons have been aired consisting of 6 episodes in the first one and 10 in the second.[3] The third season consisted of 10 episodes finishing on December 7, 2012. A fourth season of 10 episodes started airing in September 2013. A fifth season with 10 episodes began airing in October 2014.
Episode list
Season 1: 2009
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Sleeper Cells" | July 1, 2009 | ||
| An 11 months baby boy gets infected with Baylisascaris procyonis worms that cause him to sleep excessively and lose his balance and vision. An elderly veteran who used to fight in the Vietnam war gets infected by Wuchereria bancrofti, a parasitic worm that causes swelling and leaking pus-like fluid from his leg. A young man gets Schistosoma mansoni flukes in his brain, causing dizziness and nausea. | ||||
| 2 | "Outbreak" | Steve McLaughlin | Steve McLaughlin and Dominic Stobart | July 8, 2009 |
| A closer look at the parasite outbreaks from across the U.S. A group of teenage students are affected by Angiostrongylus cantonensis worms after they ate salad that had infected snails accidentally chopped up in it in Jamaica. An outbreak of Cryptosporidium hominis occurs in the south part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and kills 101 people, caused by human feces contaminating the city's water system and evaded the water treatment since it can survive chlorine-based chemicals. An old delivery man in Dallas, Texas gets infected with Leishmania tropica parasites transferred from a swarm of Sandflies. | ||||
| 3 | "Sex Maniacs" | Alexis Siggers | Alexis Siggers and Dominic Stobart | July 15, 2009 |
| A young man gets Botfly maggots in his head after he went on a trip to Belize, a country known to have high Mosquito and Botfly population. A chemical applicator who used to smoke contracts the Paragonimus kellicotti from eating raw crayfish, causing him severe coughing and hemoptysis. A teenage waitress deals with bed bugs who have hitched a ride in her suitcase after staying in a hotel on vacation. | ||||
| 4 | "Masters of Disguise" | Sally Freeman | Sally Freeman and Dominic Stobart | July 22, 2009 |
| The most deceptive parasites. A 16 year old-girl is infected with the one of the Acanthamoeba species that almost destroys her sight. An elderly Indian man is infected with strongyloides stercoralis worms from 60 years ago. A 56 year old runner is infected with Babesiosis caused by being bitten by a tick. | ||||
| 5 | "Hijackers" | T. Edward Hambleton | Dominic Stobart | July 29, 2009 |
| Parasites that take over bodies. A 4 year old boy almost goes blind in his left eye due to being infected with a parasitic worm called toxocara canis, whom he picked up this worm from ingesting dog feces. An 11-year old boy is killed by Naegleria Fowleri. A man is infected with african trypanosomiasis. | ||||
| 6 | "Living with the Enemy" | Kyle McCabe | Kyle McCabe and Dominic Stobart | August 5, 2009 |
| About parasites people must live with that doctors cannot cure. A Bolivian woman is infected with taenia solium cysts that reduce her flow of spinal fluid. A boy is infected with toxoplasma gondii that threatens to take his sight. A New York banker is infected with malaria. | ||||
Season 2: 2010
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Suicide Attackers" | June 9, 2010 | ||
| A fit and active teenage dance instructor is suddenly stopped in her tracks by unbearable abdominal pain and vomiting, and a mysterious mass in her colon is revealed to be decaying Anisakis worms after eating raw salmon in sushi. A middle-aged banker gets seizures from taenia solium that he picked up from traveling to his home country of Haiti, a developing nation harboring lots of diseases and parasites. In 1981, a scientist is infected with the worms that cause onchocerciasis. | ||||
| 2 | "Feeding Frenzy" | June 16, 2010 | ||
| The vicious Entamoeba histolytica parasite (formerly known as man-eating amoeba) eats 60% of a schoolteacher's liver from the inside out. Doctors tried to drain the abscess containing the parasite from his liver with surgical tubes but it did not work. The abscesses doubled in size. To save his life, the doctors cut out 65% of his liver. Then a teenage dancer becomes concerned when her allergic skin outbreaks become lumpy and weak which is discovered to be the result of a parasitic worm called Trichinella spiralis. When infected, the worm burrowed into her muscle tissue and nerves, damaging them. A retiree gets scabies from sarcoptes scabiei he got from staying in a dusty hospital in the past. | ||||
| 3 | "Cold Blooded Killers" | June 23, 2010 | ||
| A 9 year old hockey player comes down with encephalitis from the Acanthamoeba, which causes him to lose his concentration and balance, and slips into a 1 month coma in hospital. A computer programmer gets severe malaria from the plasmodium malariae parasite that makes him lose control of his mind and post-malarial neurological symptoms two weeks after an apparent recovery. A Chinese marathon runner gets infected with Leishmaniasis, which causes his spleen to inflate severely into a the size of a 4 month-old baby. | ||||
| 4 | "Lurkers" | July 7, 2010 | ||
| The cryptosporidium parasite infects a toddler giving her severe vomiting and diarrhea, caused by cattle feces contaminating their well water and accidentally drinking it. A microscopic amoeba called balamuthia mandrillaris kills a firefighter with an autoimmune disorder caused by AIDS and gives him severe meningitis. A rare, vicious tapeworm almost detaches the retina in a teenage girl, partially destroying vision in her left eye. Tests reveal the tapeworm was taenia crassiceps, whom she picked it up when she failed to wash hands after gardening and eaten soil contaminated with the tapeworm during lunch. | ||||
| 5 | "Flesh Eaters" | July 14, 2010 | ||
| A teenage college student from Austin,Texas gets a strange wound that slowly grows and oozes due to being infected with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis after traveling to two countries Bolivia and Peru in South America. In 1994, a teenage animal volunteer deals with a cat hookworm when a hookworm infected kitten scratches her on the chest. In 1993, an old couple deal with a strange rash that spreads on their bodies caused by the gnathostoma roundworm they picked up after eating sushi with raw catfish in Africa. | ||||
| 6 | "Stowaways" | July 28, 2010 | ||
| A 54 year old carpenter gets infected with the paragonimus westermani or Japanese Lung Fluke, which causes him to have trouble breathing, from eating live crabs in a Chinese restaurant. An Irish bike rider develops a rash on her groin and upper thighs caused by a parasitic worm called Schistosoma, which almost have given her bladder cancer. A black guidance counselor, who was an army veteran, develops an insatiable appetite, unusual weight loss, and abdominal pain and pulls out a parasitic roundworm called Ascaris lumbricoides, which he picked up from eating contaminated food while serving in the army. | ||||
| 7 | "Breeders" | August 4, 2010 | ||
| A 16 year old teenager gets a maggot in his eye, making it impossible for him to see clearly. A Portuguese construction worker deals with a grapefruit sized Hydatid Cyst in his pelvis containing a parasitic tapeworm named echinococcus granulosus and causes him severe pain in his pelvis and legs. A 9 year old girl gets infected with the Giardia parasite, which gives her severe stomach cramps. | ||||
| 8 | "Double Agents" | August 11, 2010 | ||
| In 1973, A teenage pace volunteer in the Himalayas Mountains gets a leech in his nose, which gives him a strange nosebleed. A British nature-loving landscaper gets a severe allergic reaction when he gets multiple bee stings at once and deliberately infects himself with a hookworm parasite during a vacation to Cameroon (an African country next to Nigeria known to have a great number of hookworm population) to relieve his symptoms. A 6 year old girl from South Africa gets a maggot in her foot called Cutaneous Myiasis. | ||||
| 9 | "Homegrown Enemies" | August 18, 2010 | ||
| A middle-aged man who has been caring for his ailing elderly 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. A 57 year old mother of five children suffers nausea, loss of appetite, muscle spasms, and vomiting caused by the Strongyloides worms eating her intestines and stomach cells, which she might have picked up from being in contact with infected soil. Because of steroids she took for her Asthma problems, her body became more vulnerable to the parasitic worms. | ||||
| 10 | "Shape Shifters" | August 25, 2010 | ||
| A 7 year old girl suffers headaches and seizures from a pork tapeworm after being adopted at the age of three from Nepal, a developing Indian nation in the Himalayas. A 45 year old machinist and welder suffers blurry and double vision, leaving him partially blind in his left eye, caused by a raccoon roundworm that he picked up from his turkey hunting. A 45 year old anaethesiologist, along with 28 other anaethesiologists from 3 different counties, suffer severe stomach cramps and crippling diarrhea caused by the Cyclospora parasite after eating unwashed raspberries contaminated with human feces in a luxury restaurant. (Note: At the time when this episode was shot, people and restaurants were not washing raspberries due to the fact that water pressure causes them to break apart since raspberries are brittle). | ||||
Season 3: 2012
| # | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "My Child Will Only Eat Cat Food" | October 5, 2012 |
| A toddler suddenly starts worrying her parents when she loses appetite for the foods she normally eats. Then, she starts craving salt, cat food, including dog food, but becomes stunted in her growth. After the little girl develops a strange rash, her parents learn that she has been infected by the Toxocara canis parasite. A middle-aged executive of a company had been living a healthy life, until he suddenly starts feeling pain in his abdomen. Initially, it seems he simply has a colon condition called diverticulitis. However, the abdominal cramps return and become so intense that they force him to go to the hospital and get surgery. There, the man discovers that his colon has been invaded by an antibiotic-resistant bacteria called ESBL Escherichia coli. An older married couple is celebrating for their planned future, when suddenly, they both have flu-like symptoms. When the doctor discovers swollen lymph nodes on them both, the couple learn that they have been infected by the Bubonic plague. The husband's condition, though, is much worse, as he develops gangrene and even has to get his calves amputated. | ||
| 2 | "Something's Eating My Son Inside Out" | October 12, 2012 |
| A teenage boy has been enjoying his summer vacation, but after a swim in a lake, he starts complaining of nasal pain, fever and moving teeth. At first, he appears to have sinusitis, but his sinuses have been shown to be dry. The boy soon develops swelling in his eye, nose, and gums and decaying flesh from inside his nose. It turns out that he has a weakened immune system, dealing with a rare, flesh-eating bacterium called Chromobacterium violaceum. A young model and actress has been living happily with her husband. When she breastfeeds her baby daughter, though, the young mother feels pain and even notices blood on herself. These symptoms are apparently due to a breast condition called mastitis. Although this clears up, she develops pain and numbness in her limbs, itchiness on her chest, headaches, and fatigue. Her doctors and husband doubt the young model/actress' condition, but a dream and surgery confirm that her illness has been caused by a fungal infection in her breast implants caused by aspergillus niger. A teenage college student has been enjoying college life, until she suddenly she feels chest pain. Her breathing becomes more difficult and painful. Initially, she appears to have walking pneumonia, but antibiotics fail to treat her. Her doctor soon learns that the girl's lungs have been infected by a fungus called Blastomyces. | ||
| 3 | "My Face Eating Parasite" | October 19, 2012 |
| A young man and his girlfriend have been enjoying life together, traveling in South America. During their trip, the man suddenly discovers what appears to be a pimple on his face. It seems minor at first, but his face becomes swollen, and the pimple becomes an oozing wound. Soon, the man also starts having bumps in his throat, and thus soreness in that area and lesions on his back. It turns out that he has been suffering from mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. A young man working at a homeless shelter suddenly feels sharp pain in his back. It appears to be a simple back injury, but the pain is extremely sharp and spreads to his hands and arms. He also gets red spots on his skin from a condition called vasculitis. After many tests, it becomes clear that he has rat-bite fever. A school-aged boy suddenly develops a headache after spending time at a friend's house. At first, it doesn't appear to be an issue, but the boy's pain spreads to most of his body, he develops a fever, and he is even found completely unconscious. It turns out that the boy has been suffering from a condition called valley fever. | ||
| 4 | "My Daughter is Losing Her Mind" | October 26, 2012 |
| A young part-time student has been living happily with her new husband, when suddenly, she feels a throbbing headache. Initially, she appears to have the flu, then meningitis. Soon, though, she starts experiencing hallucinations. Doctors start to believe that she is schizophrenic, but it turns out that actually, she has a teratoma on her ovaries that contains brain cells. An eight-year-old boy suddenly starts worrying his parents when he comes down with a stomachache and vomits. It appears to be simple food poisoning, but soon, the boy begins experiencing intense pain and swelling in his legs. It becomes clear that he has been suffering from Viral Myositis with Rhabdomyolysis, a disease in which the flue virus attacks muscle cells. A self-employed plumber was taking night shifts when he starts vomiting. He attempts to hide his condition and just deal with it, but the next thing he does is starts misspelling common words. It is suspected that he has stomach cancer, and he loses his appetite. However, further examinations indicate that the man has actually been infected by the Blastocystis hominis parasite. | ||
| 5 | "Something's Eating My Dreams" | November 2, 2012 |
| 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, that was contracted from her fish. A middle-aged man suddenly feels as if he's 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. | ||
| 6 | "A Monster's Taking My Baby" | November 9, 2012 |
| A middle school teacher has been having a healthy pregnancy until suddenly, she starts experiencing abdominal cramps and diarrhea. It initially appears to be a case of the flu, but she soon starts bleeding during episodes. At this point, the young woman appears to have hemorrhoids, which progressively worsen. Tests show that she has been infected by the Cryptosporidium parasite. A retired schoolteacher enjoys his retirement with his wife, when suddenly, he feels a lack of appetite for his favorite food. It doesn't appear to be an issue at first, but his appetite continues to decline, and he starts coughing frequently. His coughing fits worsens to the point where breathing becomes incredibly difficult. It appears to be pneumonia, but it turns out that a pea has been lodged in his lung. A young truck driver has been fairly healthy, when suddenly, discovers a strange speck in his vision. Later, he develops pain, irritation, and blurry vision in his right eye. It turns out that he has had a pork tapeworm in his right eye. | ||
| 7 | "I Coughed Up Worms!" | November 16, 2012 |
| 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 cannot breathe on her own anymore. It turns out that the young woman has developed an Acinetobacter baumannii infection. An energetic college student has been healthy, until she suddenly feels like she can't 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 lumbricoides 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 it's too late that it becomes clear that the teenager has died from rabies. | ||
| 8 | "My Brain Has Been Hijacked" | November 23, 2012 |
| A baby boy born prematurely alarms his parents when he suddenly comes down with a fever. Soon, he also starts resisting food and coughs severely to the point of coughing up blood. It is revealed that the baby has swallowed a button battery, which has burned a hole in his esophagus. A young, newly independent university student suddenly gets a headache, which persists longer than she is used to. Next, she experiences audible hallucinations, twitching of her head, confusion over her age, and even grand mal seizures. As she rests in preparation for a brain surgery, the young woman suddenly yells, then passes out. It turns out that she has an abscess in her brain caused a Streptococcus milleri infection from her tongue piercing. A mother/wife has been enjoying a vacation with her family, until she suddenly gets a headache. As her condition progresses, she also experiences a fever; cloudy, foul-smelling urine; dizziness and disorientation, body aches, and even petechiae on her legs. Her doctor discovers that the woman has been suffering from a viral infection called Dengue fever the whole time. | ||
| 9 | "You Left What Inside Me?" | November 30, 2012 |
| A little girl's 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. 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. A young baseball star's life is turned upside down when he starts experiencing a fever, headache, and vomiting. Doctors suspect the little boy might have meningitis, but as he deals with seizures, it turns out that he actually has the life-threatening Naegleria Fowleri. | ||
| 10 | "Killer in my Neck" | December 7, 2012 |
| A young aspiring artist suddenly comes down with flu-like symptoms and a swollen face. To make matters worse, his eyes are yellow, he has trouble breathing, and one of his eyes protrude strangely. It turns out that he has Lemierre's syndrome. An active girl's life is put on hold when she starts feeling fatigue and out of breath. Later, she also starts experiencing extreme joint pain, and she gets diagnosed with Lyme disease. However, further testing shows that the girl has Babesiosis, in addition to chronic Lyme disease. An active middle-aged woman becomes concerned when she suddenly feels lumps in her chest. After getting them removed, she then starts experiencing bleeding from her right breast. After getting that taken care of, though, she feels a growing lump in her right breast, which turns out to be two surgical sponges. | ||
Season 4: 2013
| # | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Flesh-eating Monster" | September 30, 2013 |
| 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 her case of Influenza is actually a case of Necrotizing fasciitis; a state wrestling champion gets infected with Angiostrongyliasis. | ||
| 2 | "There's a Worm in My Eye" | October 7, 2013 |
| A two-year-old boy suffers major intestinal damage after swallowing 8 magnetic beads; a teenage ballerina suffers painful migraines, ear pain, headaches, and muscle failures for nearly 5 years due to infection from the West nile virus; a preacher gets infected with the Loa loa parasite. | ||
| 3 | "Choosing Between Life and Limb" | October 11, 2013 |
| A newly engaged Illinois man mysteriously collapses and suffers organ failure from Legionnaire's disease. His fiance gazes in horror as he must choose between life and limb; a perky animal-loving eight-year-old suffers flu-like symptoms and paralysis from contracting Rabies; a college freshmen gets blindsided from an infection in his eye caused by Acanthamoeba keratitis. | ||
| 4 | "It Came From a Tick..." | October 18, 2013 |
| A mother-of-four struggles with a mysterious lump that emerges on the neck of her two-year-old daughter. But as doctors quarantine her, it's a race against time to save her life. At the hospital, she ends up testing positive for Tularemia, caused by Francisella tularensis, in which the bacterium was caused by an American dog tick; A mother suffering from nausea and abdominal pain for four years finally find out her symptoms have been caused by Fasciola hepatica; A 5-year-old suffers paralysis from Guillain–Barré syndrome. | ||
| 5 | "My Husband is Hallucinating" | October 25, 2013 |
| A small-town boy's summer fun is cut short by an apparent flu that suddenly transforms into a life-threatening condition because of meningococcal meningitis; A daredevilist/oil rig worker experiences disorienting 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, of which her white blood cells treated as a foreign agent who is Aspergillus. | ||
| 6 | "Dying Abroad" | December 11, 2013 |
| A Peace Corps volunteer traveling to Burkina Faso suddenly suffers from excruciating bouts of nausea and diarrhea from Entamoeba histolytica, and must find medical help before it is too late; a young woman's lungs fill with fluid from having hantavirus pulmonary syndrome; an 18-month-old gets infected with Baylisascaris procyonis worms. | ||
| 7 | "Maggots Are Eating Me" | December 11, 2013 |
| A teenager caught in the 2011 Joplin tornado in Missouri is recovering from a trauma wound when he suddenly suffers from a life-threatening Zygomycosis infection. Doctors race against time to help him before his body shuts down; a couple traveling to Uganda, Rwanda, and South Africa get maggots in 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 lesions on his brain from the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. | ||
| 8 | "A Deadly Swim" | December 18, 2013 |
| A teenage boy develops stomach pains, vomiting, hematemesis, and nausea from accidentally swallowing a bristle from a grill brush, which got lodged in his intestines; a 16-year-old girl who swam in a local river develops Encephalitis and tragically dies by the brain-eating amoeba (a.k.a. Naegleria fowleri); an industrial painter has difficulties breathing and walking from Blastomyces. | ||
| 9 | "My Christmas From Hell" | December 18, 2013 |
| A special episode with three cases that happened during the holidays - A newlywed woman gets a constant pain in her scalp from bot fly larvae; a Virginia man gets sharp back pains and develops a hole in his heart from Viridans streptococci; a female business consultant and part-time photographer gets muscle weakness and a constant cough from a lesion in her lungs caused by valley fever. | ||
| 10 | "I Almost Killed My Baby" | December 18, 2013 |
| A newborn baby gets Blindness and Hydrocephalus from a parasitic disease called Toxoplasma gondii, which was contracted from his mom; an 11-year-old boy suffers headaches, vomiting, and even starts speaking pure gibberish and has a horrific seizure from being infected with eastern equine encephalitis; a teenager living on a farm suffers a severe cough and fever from contracting Paragonimus kellicotti. | ||
Season 5: 2014
| # | Title | Original air date | Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "My Daughter's Going Crazy" | October 9, 2014 | N/A |
| A teenage girl begins having strange emotional reactions and having trouble sleeping from short-term memory loss and encephalitis from having a teratoma on her ovaries; an elderly mother gets chills, hand numbness, wrist pain, and oozing blisters from vibrio vulnificus; 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. | |||
| 2 | "West Nile Attack" | October 16, 2014 | N/A |
| A 6-year-old boy suffers a nasty cough, fever, and vomiting from valley fever; a newlywed husband suffers a backache and legache, and soon becomes incapable of walking due to infection from west nile virus; an international journalist suffers belly pains, night sweats, chills, nausea, and fever from entamoeba histolytica. | |||
| 3 | "A Menace in My Own Backyard" | October 23, 2014 | 0.51 |
| 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 driver's license suffers a swollen, itchy eye and excruciating eye pains from acanthamoeba keratitis. | |||
| 4 | "The Killer in the Lake" | November 6, 2014 | N/A |
| A contractor gets hit in the head with a tool, and later starts getting a pounding headache, dizziness, spotty vision, and nausea from having a nail punctured into his brain; a football player in college gets extreme headaches, a stuffy nose, and blurred vision from aspergillus fungi entering his brain; an 8-year-old boy suffers constant vomiting, fatigue, seizures, meningitis, and eventually death from naegleria fowleri. | |||
| 5 | "There's a Worm Crawling in My What?" | November 13, 2014 | N/A |
| A Canadian science-lover and traveller suffers a constant itch and stabbing pains from bot fly larvae; a video game designer gets constant vomiting, coughing, and a large mass in his chest from histoplasmosis; a 15-year-old girl gets an extremely sore throat, a headache, nausea, and body pains from lemierre's syndrome. | |||
| 6 | "Vampire Parasites Attack" | November 20, 2014 | N/A |
| A war veteran suffers fatigue, high fevers, night sweats, strange rashes, and jaundice from babesiosis; a 15-month-old baby girl suffers vomiting and bloody diarrhea from e-coli; which was contracted from milk; a PhD scientist suffers extreme fatigue, back pains, anxiety, and vertigo from aspergillus fungi invading her breast implants. | |||
| 7 | "A Holiday in the Hospital" | December 4, 2014 | 0.31 |
| The second episode of the series to be Christmas-themed - a saleswoman traveler gets stabbing headaches and a burning sensation in the right eye from a dirofilaria worm infecting 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. | |||
| 8 | "My Body Is Rotting" | December 11, 2014 | 0.94 |
| A teenager gets coughing, shoulder pains, dizziness, and nausea from cryptococcus gattii fungi invading her lungs; a telephone sales representative gets a pain and leaking fluid in her breast from spider venom infecting her body; a religious youth organizer gets swelling of multiple parts of the body over the course of three years from a loa loa worm invading her body. | |||
| 9 | "The Brain Colonizer" | December 11, 2014 | 0.86 |
| 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, and two lesions in her brain from infection with pork tapeworm; a 6-year-old girl gets a headache, a rash, high fevers, and tragically death from Rocky Mountain spotted fever. | |||
| 10 | "I Smell Like Death" | December 18, 2014 | 0.69 |
| A 29-year-old man gets a toothache, a swollen face, a closed throat, and spitting of a foul substance from necrotizing fasciitis; a female financial adviser gets fatigue, joint pain, mental confusion, hair loss, and muscle weakness for over three years from Lyme disease; a 7-year-old boy gets a loss of appetite, abdominal pains, a fever, diarrhea, constant vomiting, and weight loss from cryptosporidium. | |||
Source for Episode Guide:[4]
Reception
Mike Hale of The New York Times said that "there’s science amid the frightening stories and said that the series really grossed him out."[5] Anne Louise Bannon of Common Sense Media said that "parents need to know that there is a lot of gross stuff in the series and the show has good educational content except for the tips on how to protect yourself from parasites because the information is vague".[6]
Spin-off
In 2013, a UK spin-off called Bugs, Bites & Parasites premiered on Discovery Channel UK.
References
- ↑ Perigard, Mark (July 1, 2009). "Buggin’ out: Animal Planet’s horrifying ‘Monsters’ worms its way into your brain". Boston Herald. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
- ↑ "Expect the Unexpected in an All-New Season of Animal Planet's "Monsters Inside Me"". The Futon Critic. September 11, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
- ↑ "List of Monsters inside me episodes at TV.com". Retrieved March 25, 2012.
- ↑ "Monsters Inside Me Listings". Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ↑ Hale, Mike (June 30, 2009). "The Enemy Within: Wrigglies From Hell". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
- ↑ Bannon, Anne Louise. "Monsters Inside Me Review". Common Sense Media. Retrieved 2009-08-18.