06 September 2023 , 06:44
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This horrifying footage shows the disgusting moment doctors removed a large parasitic worm from a man's eye.
The 60-year-old unnamed patient went to hospital in Karnataka, India with the revolting creature slithering around the white of his eye. He was seen by Dr Srikanth Shetty who decided the best course of action would be to remove the worm immediately because it was putting the patient's eyesight at risk.
The intricate procedure was filmed and the footage posted online. It shows Dr Shetty carefully removing the parasite and placing it in a plastic container, where the true size of the creature is revealed. It was 15cm long.
The worm is believed to be Wuchereria Bancrofti, a type of roundworm that is spread via mosquito bites. Doctors were also left baffled when when they pulled a live parasitic worm from a woman's brain in a world first - which is chillingly similar to the plot of zombie movies. The unidentified patient, 64, was first admitted to hospital in late January 2021 after suffering weeks of grinding symptoms, including abdominal pain, diarrhoea, a dry cough, fever and night sweats.
The worm being removed from the eyeOne year later she had become forgetful and fallen into a deep depression, which led to her being referred to Canberra Hospital. Once there, she underwent a brain scan, which showed a number of abnormalities so a surgical team decided they would have to operate.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
Neurosurgeon Dr Hari Priya Bandi was presiding but was left baffled when she pulled an 8cm-long parasitic roundworm from her patient's head. Having no idea what the creature was or how it got there, she contacted her colleagues, including the on-site infectious diseases physician Dr Sanja Senanayake.
Speaking to The Guardian, Senanayake said: “But the neurosurgeon certainly didn’t go in there thinking they would find a wriggling worm. Neurosurgeons regularly deal with infections in the brain, but this was a once-in-a-career finding. No one was expecting to find that.”
After stumping medics as to what kind of worm the creature could be it took one expert just a quick glance before he realised it was an Ophidascaris robertsi - a roundworm usually found in pythons, making this patient's infection a world first. The Guardian reported how the woman lived close to a lake, which was home to a number of carpet pythons.