A man from Central Texas had to undergo surgery so doctors could remove a tapeworm out of his brain, which was causing him to go through extreme pain.
Doctors at the Dell Seton Medical Center said the patient was complaining about awful headaches.
After a couple of tests and scans, the doctors concluded that the man had a tapeworm inside his brain, which was triggering the awful headaches.
Doctors at the Dell Seton Medical Center believe the man got the tapeworm from eating an undercooked pork dish in Mexico.
The man said he ate pork in Mexico a couple of years ago.
Talking about the tapeworm, Dr. Jordan Amadio, a neurosurgeon at the Dell Seton Medical Center, said, “This can go undetected for years, so you can eat by accident a microscopic egg from the tapeworm larva and not know it for years.”
Dr. Amadio added, “They can grow inside the body without causing symptoms until they get big enough.”
The doctors said the man underwent the surgery a couple of months ago in 2019.
The man is now living a normal life, free of headaches.
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) said a tapeworm infection can be caused by eating raw or undercooked beef or pork.
Symptoms can be mild or nonexistent, meaning people could not know that they have an infection for a couple of months or even years.