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'I was in a nightmare': Man wakes to find rat eating his face

Woken by a sharp pain in the middle of the night, a 63-year-old man has recounted the horrific moment he woke to find a rat feasting on his face.

Ross Campbell, an actor from New Zealand, says the rat started “eating” his face after he took his usual sleeping pill and went to bed about two months ago.

"I wondered what the hell was going on and just felt fluid pouring down my face. So I went and looked in the mirror and I looked like Dracula,” he told the NZ Herald.

He explains the rat bit him on his top and bottom lip, and Mr Campbell, drowsy from the sleeping pill, decided to go back to sleep after he cleaned up the blood.

However, the rat wasn’t done, and soon enough was trying to eat Mr Campbell’s thumb.

A man has detailed the moment he woke up to find a rat eating his face. Source: Getty
A man has detailed the moment he woke up to find a rat eating his face. Source: Getty

By that point, too tired and “too bloody stupid” to do anything – Mr Campbell turned over his bed, only to find rat droppings, and slept on his couch.

Mr Campbell only caught a glimpse of the rat, however he assumes it was quite large, considering it managed to grab his whole mouth.

"I mean, it ate my face because it was probably hungry,” he said.

The next day, Mr Campbell went to Auckland Hospital for a tetanus shot and have his lips mended.

Mr Campbell said hospital staff were amazed and had never seen anything like this before.

The actor regrets not getting a photo of his face following the rat attack, and refers to himself as a “soft-pr***” who is hesitant to set traps.

Ross Campbell said he looked like Dracula after the rat feasted on his face. Source: Facebook
Ross Campbell said he looked like Dracula after the rat feasted on his face. Source: Facebook

Mr Campbell has lived in his apartment for three years and one of his neighbours said the rats became a problem when a university moved into the building across the street, which used to be a brewery.

Two months on, he still sleeps on the couch, avoiding his bedroom.

“From being in a dead sleep to actually wake-up with the pain then glimpse the rat,” Mr Campbell told the NZ Herald.

“I thought I was in a nightmare.”

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