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The Independent
  • 3 years ago
Australian surgeon Dr Hari Priya Bandi has recalled her shock at finding a live worm in a patient’s brain.

The “string-like structure” was pulled from a 64-year-old woman’s damaged frontal lobe during surgery in Canberra last year.

She had suffered symptoms including stomach pain, a cough and night sweats, which evolved into forgetfulness and depression, before being admitted to hospital in January 2021.

“I pulled it out and I thought, ‘Gosh, what’s that, it’s moving,’” Dr Bandi recalled, detailing the biopsy.

Doctors believe the red parasite could have been alive in the woman’s brain for up to two months.

The patient, who lives in New South Wales, is recovering well.

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00:00 I dissected around the abnormal area that you could see on the scan.
00:04 I thought, gosh, that feels funny.
00:05 You couldn't see anything more abnormal.
00:08 And then I was able to really feel something separate.
00:11 I took my tweezers or my chimer holding forceps, and I pulled it out,
00:15 and I thought, gosh, what is that?
00:18 It's moving.
00:19 Take it out of my hands.
00:21 And we put it in a path pot, thank goodness.
00:24 And it's gone away to the scientists to find out what it was.
00:26 So we immediately called the infectious diseases doctors,
00:29 and I said, what should we do next?
00:30 It was definitely not what we were expecting.
00:32 Everyone was shocked.
00:33 And the worm that we found was happily moving quite vigorously
00:39 outside the brain.
00:40 For many months, she'd been really struggling.
00:42 And it was really courageous of her to come and have further testing
00:45 after not having answers for so very long.
00:48 But she did really well for knowing what was actually causing all her trouble
00:51 and then having now treatment for what was causing the trouble.

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