Popular TV personality reveals he ‘had bugs living under his skin’ as a kid
Television personality Howie Mandel says a disturbing medical experience from his childhood continues to affect him decades later, contributing to his obsessive-compulsive disorder and germaphobia.
The 70-year-old comedian admitted during an appearance on the "In Depth With Graham Bensinger" podcast that he suffered from a rare skin condition as a boy after a sand fly laid larvae underneath his skin. He described watching the bumps on his body move as being "like a horror film."
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What followed was an experience that the "America's Got Talent" judge says traumatized him. At approximately 6 or 7 years old, doctors placed him on display at a dermatology convention. He was put on a table in his underwear to be examined by a room of strangers while nurses held him down and applied liquid nitrogen to a bump, causing his skin to "sizzle and bubble" before bursting.
"I was screaming," Mandel said. "They did one. And then my mom, who didn't know what they were going to do, took me, unstrapped me from the table and said, 'You're animals. Don't do this.' And carried me out."
Mandel's mother treated the remaining bumps at home by using a rough washcloth and alcohol to rub the skin until it bled and the larvae died. He noted that having things living under his skin created long-lasting trauma for him. "I had things living under my skin. So I have like an ick factor."
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