Doctors Dumbfounded At ‘Once-In-A-Career Finding’ After 3-Inch Worm Was Discovered In Patient’s Brain

Sep 04, 2023

Over the years, researchers have discovered and put a tag on many diseases affecting the human body. Even as these ailments have either gotten cures or are still under research, some discoveries have been utterly shocking for experts. Such was the case of a woman from south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, after a neurosurgeon found something strange in her head during surgery.

In August 2023, a neurosurgeon, Dr. Hari Priya Bandi, pulled an 8cm (just over 3 inches) parasitic roundworm from her patient's head during surgery. The discovery shocked medical personnel as this was the first recorded case of such an occurrence in the human body. The phenomenon gained traction across news headlines and on the internet.

Dr. Bandi is an active member of the Canberra surgical community and is working to promote surgical education, research, health advocacy and service improvement across the ACT. Therefore, when she discovered the strange worm in her patient's brain, she immediately alerted other medical professionals.

There have been related reports of worms found in people's heads, but not the kind that was discovered in Dr. Bandi's patient. Some people have been reported to suffer from headaches due to tapeworms found in their brains. That condition is called neurocysticercosis, which can cause neurological symptoms when larval cysts develop in the brain. 

Per CNN, in 2022, a young woman in Australia was found to have tapeworm larvae in her brain after suffering from headaches for more than a week. After the surgery and removal of the lesion, the doctors discovered that it was not a tumor but a cyst full of tapeworm larvae.

Dr. Bandi's patient was first admitted to a local hospital in late January 2021 after she suffered from abdominal pain, diarrhea, constant dry cough, fever and night sweats for three weeks. The woman's symptoms worsened in 2022 when they included forgetfulness and depression. She was then referred to Canberra Hospital, where she had an MRI scan of her brain, which showed abnormalities requiring surgery. The neurosurgeon was not expecting to pull out the over 3-inch worm from the patient's brain. Bandi told CNN that she had not come across a live worm in a human's brain before.

Shocked by her discovery, Bandi quickly reached out to the hospital's infectious diseases physician, Dr. Sanjaya Senanayake, to inform him of her discovery. The hospital quickly put up a team to look into this rare discovery so that they would know what kind of roundworm it was and how to decide on further treatments for the patient, as they had to be careful. Senanayake noted:

"Neurosurgeons regularly deal with infections in the brain, but this was a once-in-a-career finding. No one was expecting to find that."

Senanayake revealed that the worm, which was still very much alive, was quickly sent to the lab of a CSIRO scientist. Immediately the scientist saw it, he identified the worm as an ophidascaris robertsi which is usually found in pythons. Senanayake further stated that the woman's place of residence was near a lake area that is inhabited by carpet pythons. Although the patient did not have direct contact with a snake, she often collected grasses to use in cooking, and it might have passed through her consumption of greens.

The patient was said to be recovering, and thankfully, the ophidascaris infection can not be transmitted between people. However, people are advised to protect themselves in their environment and cook food thoroughly.

What do you think about this new discovery? What precautions do you suggest to curb human-animal interactions concerning diseases? Let us know, and be sure to pass this on to others.