A tapeworm like this was discovered in Luis Cortiz's brain
A man from California has received life-saving emergency surgery in which doctors removed a live tapeworm from his brain.
26-year-old Luis Ortiz is currently recovering after surgeons removed the live parasite.
After suffering with a severe headache and sickness, Luis' mother called 911 and he was taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center where a brain scan revealed the tapeworm.
A doctor told Luis at this point that he only had about 30 minutes to live.
The doctor pulled it out and he said it was still wiggling, and I'm like, 'Ugh, that doesn't sound too good.' Like, what are the odds I'd get a parasite in my head?
– Luis Ortiz
The parasitic tapeworm formed a cyst that blocked the circulation in Luis' brain.
The doctors offered a number of possible explanations of how the parasite might have found its way into Luis' brain.
They told me it was uncooked pork or if I went swimming in the river or if I've been to a third world country and I was like, 'I haven't done any of that recently.
– Luis Ortiz
The NHS says that tapeworms are parasites that can live in a person's body, usually in the intestine. They don't always cause symptoms and when they do they are often mistaken for another illness. They are rare in the UK.
Humans can catch them by:
touching contaminated faeces and then placing their hands near their mouth.
swallowing food or water containing traces of contaminated faeces.
eating raw contaminated pork, beef or fish.
Luis is now recovering from his ordeal and looking forward to finishing his senior year at college.
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