CANBERRA, Australia. A neurosurgeon investigating a woman’s mysterious symptoms at an Australian hospital made a startling discovery as she plucked a squirming worm from the patient’s brain.
Surgeon Hari Priya Bandi was performing a biopsy through a hole in the skull of a 64-year-old patient at Canberra Hospital last year when she used forceps to remove the parasite, measuring 8 centimeters or 3 inches.
“I just thought: ‘What is that? It doesn’t make any sense. But it’s alive and moving,’” Bandi was quoted as saying in The Canberra Times newspaper on Tuesday.
The creature turned out to be the larva of an Australian native roundworm previously unknown as a human parasite, named Ophidascaris robertsi. These worms are typically found in carpet pythons.
Bandi and Canberra infectious diseases physician Sanjaya Senanayake are the authors of an article about this extraordinary medical case, which was published in the latest edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Senanayake recounted receiving a call while on duty at the hospital in June last year, reporting the discovery of a live worm in a patient’s brain.
“I got a call saying: ‘We’ve got a patient with an infection problem. We’ve just removed a live worm from this patient’s brain,’” Senanayake said.
The woman had been admitted to the hospital due to forgetfulness and worsening depression over three months. Brain scans revealed changes in her brain.
A year before this incident, she had been admitted to a local hospital in southeast New South Wales state with symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, a dry cough, and night sweats.
The brain biopsy was initially expected to reveal a cancerous growth or an abscess. Senanayake noted, “Suddenly, with her (Bandi’s) forceps, she’s picking up this thing that’s wriggling. She and everyone in that operating theater were absolutely stunned.”
After the worm was successfully removed, the patient regained consciousness without any negative consequences.
“She was so grateful to have an answer for what had been causing her trouble for so very long,” Bandi said.
Six months following the extraction, the patient’s neuropsychiatric symptoms had improved but persisted, according to the journal article.
The woman had been sent home shortly after the surgery with antiparasitic drugs and had not returned to the hospital since. Senanayake explained, “She’s done OK, but obviously because this is a new infection, we’re keeping a close eye on her.”
The eggs of these worms are commonly found in snake droppings, which can contaminate grass consumed by small mammals. This cycle continues as other snakes eat these mammals.
Although the woman had no direct contact with snakes, scientists theorize that she might have ingested the eggs from the vegetation she cooked, or her contaminated hands.
AP contributed to the story.
