A 32-year-old British man almost died after a parasite crawled into his penis and laid eggs in his vital organs when he was on a dream holiday in Africa.

James Michael, the victim, is from Kensington, London, and was on a canoeing trip with his friends in southeast Africa in 2017.

During his trip, he and his friends went to Zambia and Zimbabwe, but during the trip, they made a 5-day stopover in Malawi.

When Michael and his friends were in Malawi, the group went on for a swim at a lake before flying back to the United Kingdom.

Michael didn’t know that a parasitic flatworm called schistosomes had crawled inside his penis and had laid eggs in his vital organs.

After some time, Michael started to feel a loss of feeling in his legs, had a hard time completing normal tasks, and even had a hard time sleeping during night time.

When he went to the doctors, the doctors found out that James had contracted schistosomiasis – also known as bilharzia, which is a type of parasitic worm that had crawled up his penis and laid eggs in his vital organs.

Initially, Doctors from the Hospital for Tropical Diseases said his immune system was attacking his spine, which led him to take steroids for 6 months, but doctors weren’t sure the real cause of this unusual incident.

After some time, the doctors found out that he had contracted schistosomiasis.

Michael was then placed on praziquantel, a medication that kills worms in our body.

Talking about what the doctors told him at that time, Michael said, “That killed the infection but I was left basically debilitated. They told me there was a 30 percent chance I’d make a full recovery – 10 years from now.”

Talking about what he felt like at that time, Michael said, “It was a horrible feeling – I felt completely helpless, and the odds weren’t good. I couldn’t wish what I’ve been through on anybody.”

For the first 3 months, James had to use a wheelchair, and even used a catheter as he couldn’t go to the toilet properly.

Due to the steroids that he was talking, the back of Michael was full of acne.

Michael said the pain has been like nothing he had ever known.

He added, “The pain has been like nothing I’ve ever known. Early in my recovery, sometime in January, I had a really terrible acne outbreak that went all down my back and down my arms.”

He continued, “I couldn’t sleep for a month because lying on my back hurt. I couldn’t really be under running water either, so I had to shower my front instead. This has been horrendous. It’s felt like a never-ending mountain I’ve had to climb.”