A 64-year-old woman from England, who lived in New South Wales, Australia, went to the hospital in January 2021 because she had stomach pain and diarrhea for three weeks. Later on, she also had a dry cough and night sweats. In 2022, she started to forget things and feel very sad, so doctors sent her to Canberra hospital.
A special picture of her brain (MRI scan) showed a moving helminth, a type of parasitic roundworm, in a spot on the front part of her brain. To help her, the doctors had to do surgery. They took out the roundworm, which was 8cm long (almost as long as a credit card) and just 1mm wide.
The doctor in charge of the surgery, Dr. Hari Priya Bandi, said the case was like a puzzle when they first saw it. After they looked at the brain scan, Dr. Bandi saw something not normal in the brain that was changing quickly over time.