Surgeon Hari Priya Bandi recounted the moment when she discovered the worm on a patient's brain during a biopsy, saying, "I picked it up and just thought, 'Look at this, what could it be?'"
A groundbreaking medical incident unfolded when a 64-year-old woman from New South Wales, Australia, was admitted to a local hospital in late January 2021 with perplexing symptoms, including memory lapses. In a world-first occurrence, a live, wriggling worm was extracted from her brain.
The patient's admission to the hospital followed several weeks of suffering from abdominal pain and diarrhea. In addition to respiratory issues, medical scans revealed irregularities in her lungs and liver. Despite treatment, her condition deteriorated, leading to cognitive struggles and depressive symptoms.
Initially, an MRI scan indicated a potential tumor, prompting further investigation. In June 2022, during a biopsy, medical professionals were taken aback by an astonishing discovery. Surgeon Hari Priya Bandi, who led the procedure, remarked, "Encountering such surprising findings is extremely rare in our line of work."
To their astonishment, nestled within the patient's right frontal lobe was not a cancerous growth, but rather a live parasitic worm. Measuring around 80 millimeters (3 inches) in length and 1 millimeter in diameter, the worm was an unexpected presence.
Recalling the moment, Bandi shared, "I instinctively picked it up and thought, 'What is this... It's moving.' I decided, 'Let's remove it.'" She further revealed, "I experienced a brief moment of nausea during that instant," as reported by Australia's Channel 7 News.
Infectious disease specialist Sanjaya Senanayake was on duty at Canberra Hospital in Australia when he received an unexpected call from his neurosurgery colleagues. Little did he anticipate the nature of the information he was about to receive.
Measuring 3 inches in length, the "Ophidascaris robertsi" is a type of roundworm typically prevalent in pythons. This incident marked the initial recognition of this parasite within a human body.
"It wasn't supposed to mature inside her. Its normal developmental host is small mammals and marsupials. Hence, she became an unintended host," explained Senanayake. The parasite had traversed through the woman's lungs and liver before ultimately reaching her brain, he elaborated.
Bandi and Senanayake are among the contributors of an article published in the recent issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, outlining the particulars of this case.
According to Senanayake, the patient was a resident living near a lake that also served as a habitat for carpet pythons. While the woman had not directly encountered any snakes, she frequently gathered native plants from the vicinity of the lake for culinary purposes.
This prompted medical professionals to speculate that she might have inadvertently ingested python eggs due to contamination. These larvae are known to sustain themselves within animal hosts for extended durations, which has led researchers to caution about potential future occurrences in human cases.
Senanayake cautioned, "Over the past three decades, we've witnessed 30 new infections emerging worldwide, with nearly 75% of them originating from the animal population." This trend, he explained, is a consequence of human activities encroaching upon natural animal habitats.
"We should brace ourselves for more instances of similar infections," he emphasized.
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