Doctors remove live six-inch worm from Chinese woman’s brain

Chinese doctors removed a live six-inch worm (parasite) from a 23-year-old Chinese female patient who was complaining of having continuous headaches.

Xiao Yi (pseudonym) was reported to have visited a local clinic in Jiangsu province of eastern China in January but was transferred to a provincial hospital in Nanjing after she suffered an epilepsy attack.

Doctors recommended brain surgery when she tested positive for being infected with parasites.

To the surprise of the Chinese doctors, the parasite was more than 10 centimetres, white and live, like a noodle.

Footage posted on PearVideo showed the parasite wiggling in a bowl after it was removed from her brain.

During the operation, we found a creeping, long bug that was over 10 centimetres. It was white and live, like a noodle, said Dr Dai Wei, a chief medic from the Gulou Hospital of Nanjing University.

It was still moving around when we took it out completely, Dai stated.

Doctors suggested that such brain infection was a result of the consumption of unhygienic food, such as raw or half-cooked wild animal meat.

According to Dr Dai, “[The worms] normally come from raw meat, mostly seafood, which contains a lot of parasites,”

Sometimes the worms get into a person’s brain through the blood and develop there.

The patient who was reported to be a food lover admitted to the doctors that she once devoured a dish of frogs on a trip two years ago.

Maybe because she was travelling, the restaurant [she visited] might be unhygienic or they might cook the food with unsanitary standards, Dr Dai explained.

Xiao Yi was reported to be gradually recuperating after the operation.