Howie Mandel Reveals Age-6 Trauma From Sand Fly Larvae and Doctor Mistreatment

2 articles · Updated · USA TODAY · Jun 17

Howie Mandel, 70, said on Graham Bensinger’s podcast that a sand fly laid larvae under his skin when he was about 6 or 7, leaving moving bumps he described as “like a horror film.”
Toronto doctors deepened that trauma, he said, by displaying him at a dermatology convention, strapping him to a table and applying liquid nitrogen until the bumps sizzled, bubbled and burst.
Mandel said his mother pulled him out of the procedure and later removed the remaining larvae at home with alcohol and a rough washcloth, an ordeal he links to his lasting “ick factor.”
The TV personality, long open about severe OCD and germaphobia, said the childhood experience still affects him; physician Bayo Curry-Winchell said early trauma can shape later physical and mental health.
Curry-Winchell said patients who feel dismissed should press doctors respectfully for other explanations and trust their own sense when they are being gaslit.