Luís Ortíz, a 26-year-old California university student started having bad headaches last August, and he tried to ignore them, but by September he found them unbearable. After vomiting and becoming disoriented, his mother rushed him to the hospital, where a huge surprise awaited him.
Ortiz had only about 30 minutes to live, according to doctors. It was neurosurgeon Soren Singel who broke the news him: he had a tapeworm living in his brain. Yes! A tapeworm.
“I was shocked,” Ortiz said. “I just couldn’t believe something like that would happen to me. I didn’t know there was a parasite in my head trying to ruin my life.”
Ortiz has no idea where he might have contracted the tapeworm but sources say it might have entered his body as an egg in food – possibly on a piece of pork.
Story has it that Singel drilled a hole above Ortiz’s eyebrow and fished out the worm with a grasping tool. “The worm was still wiggling when we pulled it out,” Singel told the Register.
The parasite had become embedded in a cyst that was stemming the flow of water to Ortiz’s brain, causing the life-threatening damage.
Is Ortiz ok? According to reports, he can’t drive or work and has had to drop out of school, move back home and find a temporary place for his dog to live. This isn’t the first time this has happened in history, but it’s just as tough every time!
Ortiz is performing daily memory tasks as therapy and claims he is staying away from pork for time eternal. We can understand why.
Photo credit: Rattiya Thongdumhyu/Shutterstock
