Andrea (With or Without You)

Andrea came into the ER with a headache that had lasted for a month and nosebleeds and was discovered to have a leech living in her sinus cavity.

History
Andrea came into the ER with a headache that persisted for a month and moved around her head. She also said she had a nosebleed, but when she went to wipe the blood, it went back into her nose. Jo Wilson observed that in the ER and when it slithered back up, she told Andrea that it was not a nosebleed.

Jo then used a scope to look up into Andrea's sinus cavity. She jumped back in horror when she saw a critter slithering around in there.

While Andrea told a story of jumping into water, which she suspected is when the critter might have crawled in, Jo used steam to draw out the critter so she could use tweezers to extract it. It worked and she grabbed onto it, but Andrea complained that it was clawing as Jo pulled and eventually slapped Jo to stop her.

Andrea needed to be convinced to try again. April Kepner explained to her that the critter would get hungry and start feeding on her, eventually eating her brain. That got her to agree to try again. They had her sniff to close her nasal passages and Jo used tweezers to pull out the critter, which April then identified as a leech. She asked Andrea if she wanted to keep the leech. She didn't, but Jo did.

Notes and Trivia

 * Jo named the leech Herbie.
 * She had gone to China the month prior, leading her to ask Jo if she had bird flu or SARS.