14 DAY TRIAL // Just the other day, medical experts in China operated on a young woman and recovered a gross-looking parasite from her brain. Without this surgery, the woman would have eventually died.
The parasite, pictured below, had been growing inside her brain for years. At the time doctors found it and removed it, it was about the size of your average pencil.
It was her dietary habits that got her in trouble
The surgeons who handled this case explain that the parasitic infection 29-year-old Yin Meng was diagnosed with is known to the medical community as Sparganosis.
Interestingly enough, it looks like it was her dietary habits as a child that got this young woman in trouble and nearly killed her by exposing her to the parasitic infection.
Thus, it is understood that Yin Meng contracted the parasite growing inside her brain when, as a child, she ate live frogs. In time, the foreign organism got bigger and bigger.
“She said that when she was a child, around five-years-old, she used to catch and eat live frogs with her grandmother,” said a spokesperson for the hospital where the woman was treated, as cited by DM.
The woman had no idea she had a parasite inside her
During the years that the parasite kept growing inside her brain, the woman often experienced headaches and even seizures. These symptoms got worse as the time went by.
Eventually, doctors realized that something was developing inside her. However, they initially refused to operate on her, fearing that they would end up killing her while trying to save her.
When the headaches and the seizures became too frequent and too severe for the woman to handle, surgeons finally agreed to cut her open and remove whatever it was that was making her sick.
Much to their surprise, they realized that what they were dealing with was a parasite. Needless to say, 29-year-old Yin Meng was also shocked to learn her diagnosis, as was her husband.
Yin Meng is well on the road to recovery
Now that the parasite is no longer eating away at her brain, the young woman feels much better. She no longer gets headaches and doesn't have to worry about seizing without warning at home or at work.
The medical experts treating her warn that, while inside her, the parasite caused significant damage to her brain. It is unclear whether the damage is permanent or whether her brain will eventually recover.
“The damage to her nervous system is quite extensive but we hope we can prevent it from being permanent as the brain has an amazing capacity to heal itself,” said the hospital spokesperson.
