DOCTOR FINDS WORM ALIVE IN WOMAN’S BRAIN

During an operation, a doctor in Australia was shocked when she found a live worm wriggling in her patient’s brain.

The neurosurgeon, Doctor Hari Priya Bandi pulled out a live 8-centimeter long parasitic roundworm and managed to send it to an animal parasitology expert at an Australian governmental scientific research agency 20 minutes from the Canberra Hospital where the operation took place.

At the agency, the expert confirmed it was a parasitic roundworm.

CNN reports that molecular tests confirmed it was Ophidascaris robertsi, a roundworm usually found in pythons, according to a press release from the Australian National University and the Canberra Hospital.

In January 2021, the patient was admitted to hospital after suffering with diarrhea and abdominal pain for three weeks. She also had a fever, night sweats and a constant dry cough. A few months later she had symptoms of forgetfulness and depression.

After undergoing an MRI scan, it was revealed that the right frontal lobe of her brain showed something unusual.

It’s believed the woman ate greens that she found next to a lake where carpet pythons live and that the roundworm was transported via the carpet pythons’ faeces found among the greens.

Image credit: CNN