A live worm removed from a woman’s brain in Australia has been termed the first in history
A neurosurgeon was left shocked after she pulled out a live worm from a woman’s brain in Australia.
Surgeon Hari Priya Bandi was taking a biopsy via a hole in her patient’s skull when she used forceps to remove the parasite, which was 8 centimeters (3 inches) long.
The 64-year-old woman was initially admitted to a nearby hospital in late January 2021 after experiencing three weeks of gastrointestinal pain, diarrhea, a persistent dry cough, a fever, and night sweats.
She was taken to a hospital in the nation’s capital of Australia when her symptoms progressed to include depression and forgetfulness. An MRI scan discovered something strange in the patient’s right frontal lobe of the brain.
“I’ve only come across worms using my not-so-good gardening skills … I find them terrifying and this is not something I deal with at all,” Bandi told CNN of the world’s first discovery of a live worm inside a human brain.
The finding unleashed a mad scramble to find out what exactly the parasite was, Canberra Hospital infectious disease expert Sanjaya Senanayake said.
One colleague in the hospital lab was able to reach an animal parasitology expert at a governmental scientific research agency just 20 minutes away – and found their unexpected answer.
“We were able to send the live wiggling worm to him, and he was able to look at it and immediately identify it,” Senanayake said.
Researchers believe this is the first-ever instance of human infection from an Ophidascaris robertsi, a roundworm nematode parasite usually found in carpet pythons, which is a snake found in Australia.