Tapeworm removed from brain of California college student just in time
TomoNews US
2015-11-10
Views 34
NAPA, CALIFORNIA — Twenty-six-year-old college student Luis Ortiz has been enduring mind-numbing headaches for months, and never knew why. As it turns out, a tapeworm has been living in his brain.
Ortiz, who lives in Sacramento, was skateboarding in Napa in his parents' neighbourhood, when he says he suddenly experienced the worst headache of his life. Overcome with throbbing pain in skull, he went to see his mother at her home. She says he appeared extremely disoriented when she saw him, and when he began vomiting, they rushed to the hospital.
After doing scans at Queen of the Valley Medical Center, neurosurgeon Soren Singel told him they'd found a tapeworm beneath his skull, which had formed a cyst, and was blocking the flow of water to chambers in his brain.
Acting quickly, the surgeon drilled a hole in the skull bone above Ortiz's eyebrow. Using a grasping tool, Dr. Singel successfully fished out tapeworm, which was still wiggling. The surgeon told Ortiz that had he come in even 30 minutes later, he would have been dead.
The surgeon says the tapeworm larva likely entered Ortiz's body from eating undercooked pork products, traveling from his intestines to his brain. Cases of larval cysts in the brain, known as neurocysticercosis, most often develop after a person eats food that has been contaminated by the microscopic eggs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the eggs are passed on from the feces of a person who has a pork tapeworm of their own, without realizing it. Approximately 1000 people suffer from this condition every year and have to undergo surgery for it.
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Ortiz, who lives in Sacramento, was skateboarding in Napa in his parents' neighbourhood, when he says he suddenly experienced the worst headache of his life. Overcome with throbbing pain in skull, he went to see his mother at her home. She says he appeared extremely disoriented when she saw him, and when he began vomiting, they rushed to the hospital.
After doing scans at Queen of the Valley Medical Center, neurosurgeon Soren Singel told him they'd found a tapeworm beneath his skull, which had formed a cyst, and was blocking the flow of water to chambers in his brain.
Acting quickly, the surgeon drilled a hole in the skull bone above Ortiz's eyebrow. Using a grasping tool, Dr. Singel successfully fished out tapeworm, which was still wiggling. The surgeon told Ortiz that had he come in even 30 minutes later, he would have been dead.
The surgeon says the tapeworm larva likely entered Ortiz's body from eating undercooked pork products, traveling from his intestines to his brain. Cases of larval cysts in the brain, known as neurocysticercosis, most often develop after a person eats food that has been contaminated by the microscopic eggs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the eggs are passed on from the feces of a person who has a pork tapeworm of their own, without realizing it. Approximately 1000 people suffer from this condition every year and have to undergo surgery for it.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
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Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/
Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus
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